The Indiana Court of Appeals rejected Jonte Crawford’s latest petition Monday.
In a 3-0 decision, Judge Elizabeth Tavitas wrote that a lower post-conviction relief court was right to reject his case that he had an ineffective lawyer at his murder trial.
At issue, Crawford argued, the lawyer should have pushed for him to get alternative juvenile sentencing.
Tavitas countered that probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference anyway, since another court may not have granted it in a murder case, she wrote.
Crawford, then 17, and Donnell D. Wilson, then 16, had just robbed a 15-year-old on March 17, 2013 near Tolleston Park before they argued, then shot brothers Shaqwone “Shaq” Ham, 19, and Charles “Lil C” Wood, 18, blocks away, according to Post-Tribune archives.
Wilson shot Wood in the head, before Crawford gunned down Ham “several times in the back” as he took off running, according to court documents. The pair were each charged with murder and robbery. Wilson was sentenced to 183 years, while Crawford got 61 years — both in summer 2014.
Police found Wood on 13th Avenue near Rutledge Street with a gunshot wound to his head. He died the next day after he was disconnected from life support.
“When Shaq (Shaqwone) tried to run, Jonte shot him,” the affidavit states. “Jonte shot Shaq once and then ran up on him and shot him again,” the affidavit states. Ham collapsed in some bushes near the corner of a house at 2558 W. 13th Ave.
At sentencing, Crawford said his actions were a “mistake.”
In her opinion, Tavitas wrote Crawford failed to show in his earlier appeal how his lawyer failed the case. His age at the time didn’t necessarily mean he should have a “reduced sentence,” since it was “cold and calculated,” she argued.
“Even if (the lawyer) had requested the trial court to sentence Crawford under the alternative juvenile sentencing statute, the trial court was not required to do so, and nothing suggests that the trial court would have ordered a more lenient sentence,” she wrote.
mcolias@post-trib.com
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
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