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WILKES-BARRE — One down, one to go.
A Sweet Valley woman’s double-homicide trial ended Wednesday with a pair of first-degree murder convictions in the April 2014 shooting deaths of Ronald “Barney” Evans, 73, and his 43-year-old son Jeffrey Evans.
Jurors in Luzerne County deliberated for more than 15 hours before announcing they had found 40-year-old Holly Ann Crawford guilty of two counts of criminal homicide and two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal homicide.
“Justice was served for my son. My only son,” said a weeping Mary Ellen Evans, mother of Jeffrey Evans.
Judge Fred A. Pierantoni III scheduled Crawford’s sentencing for Nov. 25. Under state law, a first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence.
Crawford’s co-defendant, alleged co-conspirator and on-and-off boyfriend James Edward Roche, is set to be tried Nov. 2 for his alleged role in the murders. The 33-year-old faces an identical set of charges.
“They were evil people,” Ronald Evans’s sister, Elaine Kukowski, said through tears.
After five days of testimony and two “agonizing” days of deliberation, Kukowski said hearing the jury’s verdict was both “wonderful” and a relief.
“But it won’t bring my brother back,” she said.
Despite that heavy truth, she said she is thankful to the team of prosecutors who worked on the case.
Assistant District Attorney Mamie Phillips said she too breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the jury’s decision. She said she and assistant district attorneys William Finnegan and Daniel Hollander — her team through the Crawford trial — are already working on their case against Roche and look forward to taking him to trial.
Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said she anticipates the case against Roche will be an easier one to prosecute.
Salavantis praised the attorneys and investigators who worked on the Crawford case, but heaped the most praise on the jury.
“They took the job very seriously,” she said. “It’s very apparent they took their time.”
Jurors first entered deliberations at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and continued well into the evening hours before Pierantoni released the dozen men and women for the evening. They returned to the deliberation room at about 9 a.m. Wednesday where they reached a decision midway through the afternoon.
Defense attorney Jonathan Blum said he inferred from the length of deliberations the jury had at least some doubt of his client’s guilt.
Blum said he was disappointed with the verdict, but cannot fault the jurors for their decision.
He represented Crawford through the proceedings along with attorneys Nicole Thompson Lermitte and William Ruzzo.
The attorneys painted a picture of Crawford as a battered alcoholic who learned to acquiesce to the whims of her jealous and abusive boyfriend as a way of avoiding his wrath.
But jurors sided ultimately in their verdict with prosecutors, who said Crawford viewed the elder Evans — to whom she had previously traded sex and sexual favors for gifts and money — as a problem and point of contention in her relationship with Roche.
Crawford’s daughter, Alexa Balma, said from the witness stand last week that her mother often brought up Ronald Evans as a way to make Roche jealous.
According to testimony, Roche on April 21, 2014, grew enraged while drinking and watching the movie “Boondock Saints” with Crawford and her mother Moya Linde and began threatening to kill the elder Evans.
Prosecutors said Crawford agreed she would go with Roche to Evans’s home and suggested they kill Jeffrey Evans as well because she said he killed his cat.
Crawford said in testimony Friday she did not take Roche’s threats seriously because he often made similar comments. She said she made the comment about Jeffrey Evans in sarcasm and said she agreed to go to the Evanses’ residence in order to retrieve drugs to calm Roche.
Crawford said she considered both victims her friends.