Connor Crowe appears at his sentencing hearing and plea hearing, inset, for the murder of his mother and sister. (Screenshots via WTRF; WTOV)
A West Virginia teenager was recently sentenced to 80 years in prison for the admitted murders of his mother and sister.
Connor Crowe, 16, pleaded guilty in November 2022 to two charges of second-degree murder in the September 2020 murders that claimed the lives of his 15-year-old sister and mother, Melissa Rowland, 39, in family home on Ardmore Avenue in New Cumberland – a small town west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
On the day in question, Crowe fired multiple bullets into each victim’s chest and torso, according to the Weirton Daily Times.
After the matricide and sororicide attack, the accused ran out of his house shouting that an unknown person had entered and killed his family, the newspaper reports, citing prosecutor Steven Dragisich. Then Crowe told a neighbor he shot the stranger in the shoulder – pulling the gun out of his pajamas. The bullet fragments and casings at the crime scene matched the gun Crowe had shown to his neighbor. The teenager was covered in bullet residue. Police also said there was no evidence of anyone breaking into the residence or fleeing.
Crowe was 13 at the time.
“I’m aware that he was 13, but my job and my duty as a district attorney for this county is to protect the public and hold people accountable for their actions,” Dragisich told Circuit Judge Jason Cuomo after the boy pleaded guilty. “Thus, we will be asking for the maximum sentence allowed by law, a 40-year sentence for each offence, making a total of 80 years.”
Crowe was reportedly unsure about waiving his rights during his plea hearing – twice prompting the judge to halt proceedings.
“There was a long hesitation there, and every time it happens to me it puts me on my heels,” the judge reportedly said. “I don’t want anyone to hesitate to plead guilty – I would prefer to have all the defendants (going to) trial before me, all the time. I’ll give you another chance… what’s the hesitation? »
After conferring with his attorney and a little more back and forth between the court and the attorneys involved, Crowe accepted guilt.
The judge eventually accepted the plea, warning the defendant that he could have tried his luck with a jury by giving him a lesser sentence.
And, in the motions, Crowe asked the court for exactly that.
Cuomo was not responsive to the request.
“You’re asking this court for something less than the maximum so you can do something about yourself,” the judge said in comments reported by Wheeling, Va.-based ABC/CBS/MyNetworkTV affiliate WTRF. Western. “That’s what you’re asking. That’s what you said in the file. Your sister would have graduated from high school about a week or two ago. She will never have this opportunity. She will never go to college. She will never be able to walk down the aisle, get married and have her own children. You took this from him. You haven’t given her the opportunity to do something on her own, but you’re asking me to do this to you.
Just as the state had requested, Crowe was sentenced to a maximum of 40 years in prison for each murder. Cuomo decided that the sentences would be served consecutively or one after the other.
“It is my duty to protect the public and keep everyone safe and the most effective way to do that was for him to be sentenced to the maximum amount,” the prosecutor said, according to WTRF. “And I’m sure the judge saw it the same way.”
He faces a minimum sentence of 10 years for each murder.
No motive for the violence has ever been revealed.
“Yeah, no great explanation, and I don’t think we’ll really understand why,” Dragisich said last year after the plea hearing in comments reported by Steubenville-based Fox affiliate WTOV. in Ohio.
When Crowe turns 18, he will be transferred to an adult facility. A separate hearing will be held at that time to determine where he will go.
He will be eligible for parole after 15 years behind bars.
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