Crime Wire Weekly 2/20/26 | Shia LaBeouf’s Big Easy Beat-Down, Pickleball Brawl, Pizza Stalker (Preview)

0:16 Hey, folks, welcome back to your favorite podcast covering true crime headlines from all over the United States and even a few globally. A click, a click, a click, We're going to have a click look at some of the topics we have come in your way today. Carnival season is wrapped up in the Bayou State and it wasn't without a little bit of crime coming with it. Transformer store Shia Labuff caught a beat down and an arrest in the Crescent City during Mardi Gras, and we're going to be talking about that. Police became a target of a crew on one float in New Orleans where they were intentionally pelted with beads, and we're gonna be talking about that. In Florida, a pickleball match. Have you ever played pickleball?

1:03 I have, and I love it. I hate to admit it, but I love it. Well. They have one in Florida that turned into a twenty person brawl that led to the arrest of a Florida couple. A former chief of police in Maryland has been sentenced for a nearly decade long arson's arson incident targeting rivals. The trial has started in Georgia for a father link to a Georgia high school shooting by gifting the weapon his son used in the shooting. We're gonna be talking about that. In Arizona, a man is sent to life in prison over a jealous obsession with a pizza shop co worker. We've got all these stories and much more for you today on Crime Wire Weekly. I am Jim Chapman.

1:47 And I'm Kelly Jennings. And you did not see me just now, Jimothy, But I hold my phone up because we started this podcast at exactly nine one one, nine eleven. Uh well, hitting. It's crime got You don't like numbers, like you're not one of those people that likes numbers on things. No, that's pretty cool. I did that on purpose, exactly. It's intentional. Everything I do is with intent. I never doubted you. All right, Look, just a quick reminder before we get into today's topics. There's a lot of people, Kelly. They've been saying the hour we spend covering the crime headlines every Friday just is not enough, which is why we started Overtime. A reminder. Overtime is a full time video version of not only Crime Wire Weekly, but we have additional topics. You're not going to hear on this regular broadcast.

2:37 It's completely commercial free. It features segments like True Crime Time Machine, where we take a look back at crimes throughout history, and you can find overtime on either of our individual Patreon pages and I link those in the description of the podcast you're listening to now, so you can just go and check it out. Is the reason you took my I'm just curious. Oh, I feel like I needed it? Sorry, got you? Sorry? Kelly's a pen thief. Y'all. Let's get into today's stories, and we're going to start out with Hollywood actor Shi Labuff, who is all over the news, of course, best known for his roles in blockbuster films like Transformers. Well, he found himself in handcuffs during the height of Mardi Grass celebrations in New Orleans. The thirty nine year old star was arrested early Tuesday morning on two counts of simple battery following an alleged physical altercation outside a bar in the French Quarter. The incident occurred just after midnight as revelers packed the streets for the annual Fat Tuesday festivities.

3:42 Lebuff described by witnesses as inebriated and on a bar crawl reportedly got into a heated confrontation at a bar on Royal Street when bar staff attempted to remove Leabuff, which initially he left the bar, y'all. He comes back a little while later and he continues antagonizing patrons inside and outside of the bar. He was removed yet again, and this time he got really aggressive ONTs outside. He actually punched a staff member a couple of times, and allegedly also punched a bystander. In the news, he was restrained by several people. Paramedics from New Orleans EMS were called to the scene and they treated the actor for injury sustained in the scuffle. And there's actually video footage of him not only in the ambulance, but also during the scuffle. I'm sure a lot of you have seen that.

4:35 Laboff was captured looking very dishoveled, to say the least, and local authorities confirmed the arrest, and they noted he was taken into custody shortly after and was released on his own recognents. Now, the disturbing thing here is this comes after years of Laboff publicly discussing his journey to sobriety. He's got some struggles there, and his of legal troubles seems to be kind of mounting for him. He's had multiple arrest in the past. As a matter of fact, when I was looking for some pictures of this incident, I came across probably I don't know, four or five booking photos of him over the last couple of years.

5:16 So he's been having a fight with a demon on his back. But it looks like he's getting probably the worst press so far with this incident, and I think a lot of it has contributed to the fact that cell phones are so prevalent now and people are just recording him looking like an idiot quite frankly. All right, So I'm gonna just tell you this. I have a soft spot for him, and I don't I can't explain it, but I think it's from interviews that I've seen him do in the past, and one in particular really pulled up by heartstrings because he and what he did here was wrong. Okay, I'm not justifying this in any way, but he was doing an interview with the guy that played Shane on The World Walking Dead, John Burnhaal, who I also have a soft spot for.

6:04 But anyway, they were talking about like addiction, and Shylah buff was like crying in it and yeah, and he was like, you know, I've gone to rehabit. My family didn't show up, and obviously I would say they probably didn't shut up for a reason because you've been problematic for a while. But he was hurt, you know. And then I guess it was his wife or his girlfriend at the time or whatever, she showed up a few weeks in and it really meant a lot to him. But he does have some demons, and I don't know what they are. But I also know that when he was a kid, he was so promising. Do you know how he got famous? By the way, how he got his first acting job. He was like nine years old or something young, I don't know, he was young, and he just called up a talent agency and claimed to be an agent for himself. Now clearly he was a kid, okay, but he thought he just nailed it. But they were so tickled by that, from what I understand, Obviously I wasn't on the phone, but from what I had seen, they were so tickled they called him in and that is actually how he got his first gig. If I if I remember that correctly. He had so much promise.

7:06 Yeah, and Bill when he's still Look he's quite honestly an amazing actor, and he is known for being very intense in his craft. As a matter of fact, a lot of people felt very intimidated by him because he would outwork everybody on the set. That was a thing that caused a lot of riff with other actors because they felt like he was kind of peacocky. Yeah, you can't take it this series, you know that sort of thing. I know. I heard in one film he felt like whatever character he was playing needed to have one of his teeth missing, and he actually pulled his own tooth out. Yeah that's wild, That's that's a little bit far there. Show. Yeah, they got they got cgi man, they could make you look like you don't have it. I don't know if anybody told you that, but that's how serious he took his craft. There's no doubt I believe that alcohol is his drug choice. He is certainly an alcoholic, and he'd be the first one to tell you that he was claiming sobriety for the last several years. But you know, he's been living in New Orleans for the last year So he wasn't just here down here for Mardi Gras. He's been amongst the people.

8:17 Proof that money and fame and all of that they don't solve anything. If anything, it probably compounds when you have yes people around you all well. And you gain that money. It's sung at such a young age, now fifty one. I'll take it. And I promise you, I ain't gonna go off the deep Endhya, fight people in New Orleans. When I'm ship. Faced, Hya, you're just like an hour down the roadbro, call me and I'll be happy to get a bar fight with you. Yeah, you just foot the bill. Yeah, I really do, honestly, And you know, we laugh about this, but I really do hope that he gets a hold to the demons that he's facing right now because he's he's on a dark path man, And I know that's a tough habit.

9:00 It is an every day battle for the rest of your life. So and anybody who's kicked that man, shout out to y'all, I know how hard that's got to be to kick that. All right, we're going to stay in New Orleans and this is going to involve a float that may have messed up okay, so all forty one riders aboard Float ten in the Crew of Carlton Parade were ordered off the float Sunday afternoon after New Orleans Police said they intentionally hurled beads at officers in a quote aggressive manner, bringing the procession to a brief halt and leaving the elaborate Carlton Boots themed float to roll empty through the rest of the route. The incident unfolded as the Crew, the fourth oldest parading organization in New Orleans founded one hundred and two years ago, made its way along the traditional uptown route. NPD spokesperson Jonathan Morris confirmed that officers deemed the bead throwing intentionally directed at law enforcement personnel stationed along the path of the parade.

9:55 Video footage shared on social media showed officers in high visibility vests directing ry writers, some still in their pink or their pale green and silver costumes, to disembark. Amid the chaos, the float, adorned with oversized boots and festive decorations, proceeded without its revelers past the reviewing stand on Saint Charles Avenue, causing a minor delay for subsequent parades. No arrests were made, and npde Chief An Kirkpatrick announced Tuesday that the department would not pursue criminal charges, leaving the matter to the crew for internal handling. The crew will handle this internally, she said, adding that leadership has already denounced the behavior. In a statement issued Monday evening, the Crew of Carlton expressed outrage and vowed swift accountability. The Crew of Carrollton, the fourth oldest parade crew in Marty Grass, is fully aware of the unfortunate incident that occurred during yesterday's parade, The group said. The safety of our riders and parade goers is paramount. The crew's disciplinary board will thoroughly address this matter, along with any related issues, to ensure all facts are obtained and properly reviewed. Captain Wayne Lee emphasized the crew's support for law enforcement. We stand in full support of the New Orleans Police Department and all supporting law enforcement agencies, and we recognize that without their dedication and service, Marti Gras parades would not be possible.

11:09 Mayor moreno who had preemptively directed NPD to remove site or arrest anyone engaging a dangerous behavior, including empty including emptying floats if necessary, issued a stern rebuke. Our law enforcement officers work long hours during carnival to keep residents, visitors, and parade participants safe. They deserve our gratitude and cooperation, not hostility. Marti Gras. Parades are for all audiences and had time to come together with our families to celebrate our community, city, and culture. I won't tolerate anyone intentionally trying to harm kids, spectators, or officers. And that's that's a good. That's good. I like that. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Merles called the actions absolutely appalling and demanded accountability, while US Senator John Kennedy slammed the knuckleheads, as he called them involved from the senator's the Senate floor.

11:57 Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser labeled it as unac acceptable and deeply disappointing. The New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, which met with crew leaders, noted the writer's apologies and the group's commitment to identifying those responsible, with plans to ban them permanently from future rides. The Foundation is now collecting or collaborating excuse me on enhanced safety measures, including potential technology for writer accountability. Crew leaders met with NOPD Captain Anthony Buddy Mishu immediately after the parade to discuss these details, and an internal review is underway. While the crew has not confirmed how many individuals were involved, sources say it was a small group, though the collective removal underscored the severity of that breach.

12:39 Yeah, and look, this almost never happens. It is a very out of pocket experience for this to occur. Where it's horrible. First of all, to look, Marty, gral beads are made joke, you hum them suckers hard enough. Really it hurts. It's like a sack of man. Yeah, you know, thrown at the right speed. I can tell you that the parades that I've been to over the years especially I've noticed that this year with the Denim Springs parade is uh, they would if you're a police officer, and they'll line up on the roads, you know, is to surf for protecting the public, and these floats go down. They give the best stuff to the officers so they'll they'll get their attention and they'll toss them like a giant giant bead or whatever something that lights up. And I remember thinking, well that ain't fair I need to wear a uniform.

13:38 They're doing all the good stuff. So usually it is there is an overabundance of a respect shown for these officers. This is definitely an isolated incident, but I hope they get the max of whatever it is for doing that. Yeah, and you know who else I feel bad for in this are those crew riders who didn't do it. And then if you don't know this, so we have people listeners all over the US here, but parades cost a lot of money to be a rider in. So these people have spent thousands. Yeah, literally in addition, you got to buy your own beads. Yeah, you buy your own beads, your seat, everything. And if I had to be removed off of that float and paid all that money because some knucklehead, that's the nice way to put it, was pelting officers in the face with beads, you'd have a hearing from me, yeah, because that's despicable. And if you've never been to a parade, which to me is just unbelievable, right because that's our culture.

14:28 But those beads, like you said, it's like a missile. And my kid, my own child, actually got smoked in the face at the same parade, by the way, we were there Saturday, and you know, a kid, she was crying. It hurts. It hurts a lot. And so then to know you were targeted. That's some bullshit there, especially the people that are keeping you, you know, keeping the drunks at baby. You say, yeah, that's crazy. All right, Let's go to Port Orange, Florida, and look, I've never played pickleball. It looks fun and it is something that all over the country people are really taking to. We just got a huge new center right there in Walker. Yeah, that's right, pickleball courts. That's right. All over the country they're building these pickleball courts and things like that. It's known as like old people tennis. Basically, you don't have to run anywhere. The ball just comes right to you.

15:16 Pretty much make a whiffleball, is what it is. Yeah, yeah, it looks like a fun game. I'll have to play it sometime. But it wasn't very fun apparently this day, because a seemingly friendly pickleball doubles match at a country club erupted in kaot kaos in Melee, quite frankly, involving more than twenty people with a husband and wife team from one side accused of using fist, insults, and even a paddle as a weapon against their opponents, including a seventy year old man, before fleeing the scene. Anthony Saponzia and his wife, Julianne, they were fifty one years old, both of Florida, were arrested after the brawl at Bruce Creek Country Club. The couple were not members of the exclusive gated community, but they now face fell any battery charges and a lifetime ban from the club and its facilities.

16:11 So the incident unfolded around eleven am during a mixed doubles game match between two husband and wife teams on one of the club's pickleball courts. Tensions bowled over when Anthony Sapanzia accused his opponent of violating a fundamental role of the fast growing sport, apparently stepping into the kitchen, which I had no idea what that was. It's apparently something in pickleball a reference. Okay, maybe I don't know how to play pickleball because I've never heard of stepping in the kitchen. Well, what it is is it's a seven foot non volley zone near the net where the players are barred from hitting the ball in the air. What started as a heated argument over the infraction escalated into a barriage of verbal insults. As the opposing couple began walking away after the match, Sapanzia allegedly yelled at the woman, your wife is a cunt. Yeah, I don't like that word, but he called her that. The victim's husband immediately confronting him, don't talk to my wife that way. That's when the fight turned physical. Sapanzia punched the man in the eye, then swung the pickleball paddle at him, striking him above the left eye and opening a deep laceration that sent blood all over his face. When the injured man's wife rushed to help her husband, Sapanzia pushed her forcefully to the ground. A seventy year old bystander tried to intervene and was punched him a face by Sapanzia. Julianne Sapanzi allegedly piled on attacking the elderly man while he was down.

17:44 A frantic nine one one call captured the pandemonium. In that call, you can hear people saying it's bleeding and swollen. He's got blood all over his face. Over twenty individuals were involved in the fight. At the end, pons he had bolted from the club before law enforcement arrived, driving twelve miles to their gated condominium. They were arrested later that day and booked into jail. So pickleball is supposed to be fun. These people took it way too far. Of course, anytime you're involved in competition, that could happen. But twenty people involved in a pickleball brawl you don't see every day.

18:24 Okay, So I'm tickled about the pickle fight. However, who the hell's hitting a seventy year old? They should have gotten abuse again, firm, that's ridiculous. And you know what, if you can't take the heat, stay out the kitchen, all right, you didn't like that, remember he went in the kitchen? Very good. Thanks, I thought it was great, pointed out. Yeah, oh my god, oh my god. You know what, you've got to have a little cheese in your life. I like a little cheesy joke every now and then. Apparently I'm not playing pickleball, right because I've never been in a fistfight at a pickleball of course. You know, anytime you involve competition. You may have a little heated argument. But you know a friend, and I say friend because I'm old enough now that our friends range like thirty years apart, like I'm forty. But I have a friend who's in her mid sixties and she's actually the state pickleball champion in Louisiana.

19:14 Awesome. And she sews the patches on for the swat team out here. Awesome. So now you know pickleball and sewing. Okay, all right, So let's go to Arkansas and we're going to give you an update on this guy. So, the man that was known as the Devil in the Ozarks was sentenced to thirteen more years behind bars after poleting guilty on Tuesday to escaping from an Arkansas prison last year while serving an eighty year sentence for rape and murder. Grant Harden, fifty seven years old, will serve the thirteen year sentence for second degree escape consecutively to the eighty years he is currently serving. Harden is currently being held at the Varner Supermax in Gold, Arkansas. The convicted murderer and rapist was captured on June sixth, approximately one and a half miles north northwest of the North Central Unit prison facility in which he escaped on May twenty fifth. Harden had fled the prison around three pm through a sally port in the detention facility, wearing a makeshift ADC style uniform.

20:09 Official set at the time, noting that the uniform he had been wearing was not official. Officials also said that at the time, Harden apparently used a black magic marker to dye his clothing as part of his disguise. Multiple federal, state, and local agencies were involved in the search for Harden in the weeks following his escape. The Arkansas Department of Corrections said that at the time of Harden's capture, tracking dogs were able to pick up a scent near Moccason Creek and Harden was apprehended a short time later. Harden was serving that eighty year sentence for the twenty seventeen murder of James Appleton and a nineteen ninety seven rate case. Yeahd dude, man, we covered this story initially. I don't know how many months ago it was. But when this guy escaped and they couldn't find him for a little while, and this is the problem with Yeah, he got thirty years for this escape, but he already had.

21:00 Yeah, he was. He was in jail for the rest of life. Anyway, we call that practical line of I don't know what. The what could be done that would make it even worse on these guys. But when you escape from president, you got life in prison and you get an additional thirty years, what does it freaking matter? Yeah? The problem here is that he got out, and if he would have hurt somebody else and not just been captured, we would add a you know, obviously a much bigger he was a murder, yeah, and rapist. So this is not the one. This isn't some little doped that you know, escaped and we had to go tackle a field, right, And so this also makes you wonder and I know it sounds like a Karen, but I go very I go right back to the basics here. He used a magic marker on his uniform and was able to escape through a sally port. Where what was security doing at this point? Who was monitoring the cameras?

21:48 Who was you know, what the hell was going on here? Because someone needs to be held accountable for that. The citizens deserve better. Yeah, and I feel like that's a big one. Yeah, that's a big one. Well, and like I say, covered it at the beginning, and and uh, those people were dealt with. Yeah, but I don't know what you know, My question is what can you possibly dated somebody that's already got life in prison to keep them from escape and is watch them and monitor. Well, no, he needs to go to max. He needs to go to lockdown. They didn't say what so when you're in prison, By the way, I know when I say sometimes i'll say they, well they locked him up. And people are confused by that because like he's in prison when you mean locked him up. Well, there's different levels in certain prisons, so I don't know if this is a max prison, yeah, super max facilities.

22:34 Well he went to supermax after this. Well that's my point is that we do have different levels of lockdown. So like in prison, there's minimum, medium of maximum custody. Minimum is like they're they're able to like walk around them like trustees. You got your medium custodys. They're in the fence, so to speak, but they're able to moll around and walk around. He needs to be in max. He needs to be in a SiZ max. Yeah, but he wasn't in a cell block. No, he was. He was in a max prison facility. But I'm saying he needs to be in. Max multiple murderer, but he. Needs to be in max custody within the max prison, which means the highest level. He needs to be in a single man's cell block, locked up, and he's not. He's not got that movement. Well that's where he's at now, right, So that was the kind of the uh, the consequence for this as he's now been moved to another person that's considered a super max prison. And what happens here because he's all single cell there is no trustees.

23:27 And I did I did classification for a living, and I can tell you this, once you escape, you have fucked yourself for the rest of your stay there because you're going to lose all freedoms or privileges that you would have once had. So you know, but they need to I mean, come on, you got to do better. Yeah, all right, let's go to Liberty, Mississippi. Tragic Store Here. A sixteen year old boy from Denim Springs, Louisiana, has been charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of his father, who had just taken away the teen's phoning game system as punishment. Sean Kevin Dozat, who is fifty one, a longtime tug boat pilot in Denham Springs residence, was killed February eighth at a family home in this small Ama county which is near the Louisiana border. And some people say a met. Some people say a meet.

24:19 What do you say? I say a meet because the river is named am Amy Ver. But if you're from there, you say amit. I know, but I don't like that. Whenness is well, I don't think anybody cares. Kelly Jenny witness has told investigators that a fatal confrontation stem from the punishment dozah. And I think it's Dozat, y'all. If I'm mispronouncing that, I apologize. It's either doz that or dose. But his son, who was not named in court records due to his age, was arrested at the scene and booked into the a Meet County jail on a murder charge. He is being held on a fifty thousand dollars bond, which I found low for murder. The incident has devastated the close net Livingston Parish community, and this father was a well known guy for his decades in the maritime industry.

25:10 At the time of his death, he worked for Turned Services, overseeing more than twenty tugboats along the Mississippi River. He and his wife, Melissa had recently purchased a home in Liberty, Mississippi. They had dreams of operating a family farm. According to his obituary, the couple have been married to for twenty one years and they shared one son. I'm not going to name him right now. Me. Moral service was held Saturday at Emmanual Baptist Church in Denim Springs. This is this past Saturday, drawing hundreds of mourners. Visitation preceded the service and several people spoke at that. But big problem here with these gaming systems, and I mean a son killing his father, the fact that he got his fulled away.

25:58 So my thoughts are this, we are are in a society right now where uh, we are hyper fixated on devices and on gaming devices, especially for young people. And this is absolutely no shade towards this family at all. This is just a generality that I'm saying right now is that the limiting of these these systems and these gaming times seems to be paramount as a for you know, as a former teacher, I can tell you that these gaming systems are affecting these kids more than I think a lot of us realize. Even if they were just playing a basic like Mario game. I'm not even saying they're they're doing some you know, crazy grand theft auto game or something like that, because I know there's a whole argument there on that. But let's say you're just playing a generalized game. It becomes an addiction, just like we're addicted to our vice devices, just like vaping, just like anything else, and the over stimulus of the brain of a young person. And I don't mean to get too technical here, but you know, they you take away something that someone depends on, and that's what they want to do all day, every day. It's almost like think about taking a drug from an addict. He slipped out.

27:00 Obviously he did something I would hope that he is totally mortified by at this point. But it can't be undone, right, it will, I agree with you, and it will affect your your brain chemistry quite frankly, as a matter of fact, just yesterday before you know, prior to this recording, Uh, the CEO of Facebook actually is involved in a lawsuit right now and testify for over five hours in California. Because Facebook has been doing some things that are not exactly on the up and up allegedly as it were, allegedly, we don't want them coming after us. But some things like if Kelly were to take a selfie and Facebook notices, these algorithms, notice, this will blow your mind that she deleted that selfie.

27:54 In some cases, that algorithm, algorithm will assume that Kelly is very self conscious and so it will start sending her advertisements based off of, you know, books related to people being self conscious and how to overcome that, things of that nature. These algorithms will actually manipulate based off of your behavior on Facebook and. Those reels that play. Now, I know that's not a game, yeah, such as this situation, but it shows you technology and what it's doing to braink chemistry. Well, I was gonna say something else, but I want to jump real quick. I know for a fact that this is the case, but from personal experience, like I if I'm just watching a baseball game on TV, I also have a device in front of me at the same time, Like, what is happening now? What is it doing?

28:43 To us that we have to have multiple things go like this constant stimulus. You've got to be just bombarded with images and things. It's like your brain is craving more and more and more and more more. And while this is going to be horrific, just that this case, we were just talking about these gaming systems. I think we've got to come up with a plan as parents of young people that this is not going to be the only thing that they are dependent on to bide their time, you know, get them outdoors, get them playing. And I'm not saying they didn't do this. I'm just saying in general, we got to get them off that. I agree. All right, Let's go to Rockville, Maryland, where a former Maryland police chief who spent decades in law enforcement was sentenced Friday to fifty five years in prison for a string of deliberate fires he set over nearly ten years, targeting people he viewed as personal enemies. This included his own step son, and what prosecutors called a shocking betrayal of the badge he once wore. David Michael Crawford, seventy four, of Ellacott City, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Circuit Court to two counts of first degree arson and one count of second degree arson for fires at family properties in Clarksburg between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty. The sentence which was handed down by Judge Christopher Keyhoe, which that's an interesting last name, Jim. Do you remember me doing the Keyho murders? Wow? Wasn't it in that same state? I'm not sure anyway. These will run concurrently with the two consecutive life sentences plus seventy five years. Crawford is already serving from a twenty twenty three conviction in neighboring Howard County.

30:13 At seventy four. Crawford, who was a one time major in the Prince George's County Police Department and chief of the Laurel and District Heights departments, is effectively imprisoned for life. He is not, or he is only not a killer, by the grace of God. And that's what his stepson, Justin Schermstrom told the court, his voice breaking as he described the terror of discovering that the man he had known since age seven had tried to burn his family alive. Investigators say Crawford orchestrated at least thirteen arsons across five Maryland counties, Prince George's, Montgomery, Howard, Frederick, and Charles from twenty eleven to twenty twenty. The blazes destroyed or damaged homes, garages, and vehicles belonging to relatives, former colleagues, and others who had crossed him from a school board dispute to a professional slight. What in the world now his target list?

31:07 This was discovered on his cell phone and cataloged his victims using coated symbols and initials. Surveillance footage captured him in a hooded sweatshirt dousing properties with gasoline and flicking a lighter. One video even recorded the three distinct clicks as flames ignited. In one case, he accidentally set his own leg on fire and later emailed a medical forum about the resulting scar. The Montgomery County fires were intensely personal. In twenty sixteen, he poured gasoline along the garage of his stepson's town home at three seventeen am, igniting a blaze that could have spread to neighboring homes. Man a freaking town home, Jim, imagine that lose everything because the neighbor has unknown beef, I guess with his stepdad. Two more followed, another one at the same address in twenty seventeen, and a third at Shirstrom's new home in twenty twenty while his pregnant wife and young children slept inside. This is a deeply personal case causing my family a lot of stress over the years. This is what he said outside of the court. I mean this is someone that I knew intimately for over thirty years. Montgomery County State Attorney John McCarthy called the crimes evil and terrifying, noting that homes were attached to others in a dense neighborhood.

32:18 If you fired him, you'd be a target. McCarthy said. If he had a dispute with you over some schoolwar matter, you became a target. The fifty five year sentence, he added, serves as a backstop to ensure that Crawford dies behind bars, even if his prior convictions are overturned on appeals. Montgomery. Montgomery County Fire Lieutenant Chris Moe, who led the investigation, expressed relief after a decade of dead ends. It's nice to finally see after ten years that we can finally bring some sort of resolution to the case and to the family and give them some closure. Crawford, who resigned as Laurel's police chief in twenty ten amid unrelated scrutiny, showed little emotion during the hearing. His attorney said that he had apologized to the victims and accept responsibility. The case unraveled in twenty twenty one when Prince George's County detectives posted surveillance video online. A Montgomery County investigator recognized the pattern, linking it to Crawford throughout shared grudges. The followed or what followed, was a sprawling probe involving multiple agencies, culminating in his arrest and convictions that exposed a double life the protector turned predator. Crawford's fall from grace has left a community reeling. We wanted this to be a backstop to ensure that the defendant, who is now seventy four years old, would spend the rest of his life behind bars. For the victims, it was a long overdue reckoning.

33:36 Yeah, and former police chief, I mean political rivals. This is like small town politics going wild with this guy. And look, these are arsonists, they are their own breed. These people that just love to watch fire and they don't give a shit if people are in a house or the property they're destroying in there. Those are real. Arsonist is real. Yeah, it's a real thing. Also, excuse me medically speaking that I read a study on arsonists and like it triggers certain levels of dopamine and other neuro transmitters that drop, and they found it in arsonists specifically that were studying. Yeah, but this level of betrayal, and I agree with that word betrayal because there are good officers out there who dedicate their lives to help and protecting others. And you have this moron who's not only willing to hurt anybody that got in his way, but his own family and young children, and dying by fire would have been the most horrific death. Sure, this could have been way worse than just property. And shame on him. He does deserve to die behind bars. Shame on you. Hey everyone, Crime Wire Weekly has moved to its own new channel.

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