PITTSBURGH — An Uber driver begged for her life and pleaded that she had four children before a Penn Hills man fatally shot her during what investigators believe was a robbery attempt, according to a transcript of dashcam video.
Allegheny County police on Wednesday night charged Calvin Crew, 22, in the killing of 38-year-old Christi Spicuzza, whose body was found in Monroeville last weekend.
Crew is charged with homicide, robbery and tampering with evidence.
In a criminal complaint, police described how Crew allegedly used his girlfriend's phone to order an Uber and held a gun to Spicuzza’s head as she begged him to lower the weapon.
On a video retrieved from Spicuzza’s dashcam, investigators saw her arriving to pick up Crew on Feb. 11. He entered the vehicle and produced a handgun, pointing it at the back of her head, the complaint says.
He told her to keep driving. When she reached back and felt the gun, she responded, “You’ve got to be joking,” the complaint reads.
Crew reiterated that he had a gun, and she told him that she had a family, the complaint says.
“I got a family too,” Crew said. “Now drive.”
“I’m begging you, I have four kids,” she said at one point.
He repeatedly told her to “complete the trip” as she again asked him to put the gun down. He kept the gun pointed at the back of her neck.
“Please take that off of me,” she said. He reached forward and took her cellphone off of the dashboard, the complaint says.
“Do what I say, and everything will be all right,” he told her. The video ends as Crew reaches forward and grabs the dashcam, the complaint says.
Police found Spicuzza, of Turtle Creek, dead with a single gunshot wound to the head in a wooded area near the 500 block of Rosecrest Drive.
According to police, Crew was arrested shortly before 7 p.m. Thursday.
He was arraigned early Friday before District Judge Robert P. Dzvonick. He was being held without bail in the Allegheny County Jail pending a preliminary hearing on Feb. 25.
Spicuzza was initially reported missing on Feb. 11 after she failed to return home from picking up Uber fares the previous evening.
Several hours before Spicuzza’s body was spotted by a delivery driver, Pitcairn police found her vehicle in the 500 block of Fourth Street in Pitcairn.
Police found her dashboard camera on Thursday, the criminal complaint says, apparently abandoned near where Crew requested to be dropped off when he was in Spicuzza’s vehicle.
Allegheny County and Monroeville police held a news conference Friday morning to discuss the arrest, saying the dashcam video was essential to attaching Crew to the crime, in addition to a “vast” amount of evidence gathered over the past week through interviews and cellphone data.
County Police Superintendent Christopher Kearns said investigators believe Crew’s motivation was to rob Spicuzza, and the two had no prior connection. Police described the circumstances around the alleged killing, including that it involved two people with no shared history, as unusual.
Some aspects of the case still remain under investigation, including what Crew may have stolen from Spicuzza and whether his girlfriend will face criminal charges for ordering the Uber on his behalf.
Crew’s girlfriend, 22-year-old Tanaya Mullen of Pitcairn, sent him a message saying, “[I’m] not going to jail if we get caught,” the complaint reads. Police officials refused to comment on the message and said they would not speculate on its meaning.
As of Friday afternoon, there were no charges filed against Mullen. It was also unclear whether Mullen’s handgun, which she told police went missing after being brought to a birthday party for a relative of Crew’s, was used in the killing.
But the complaint says Mullen told police that Crew had at one point tried to borrow the gun from her, but he “didn’t put it in words.” She also responded affirmatively when police asked if she believed Crew had the weapon.
Crew told police in an interview that he had taken the Uber before walking to a Wilkinsburg bus station. From there he claimed he took a bus to Pitcairn and went to his girlfriend’s apartment, where he also resides. Police said video surveillance contradicts that narrative, and he is not seen entering a bus from any station.
While police had no official statements from Spicuzza’s family to share, they said they were glad that someone was charged with her killing.
“When detectives spoke to Spicuzza’s] family members last night, they were happy and relieved,” county police Assistant Superintendent Victor Joseph said.
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