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00:00A husband does the unthinkable.
00:04And you say your wife is beyond help?
00:07Yes, ma'am.
00:09I was told your father shot your mother.
00:13I still don't know how to take that.
00:16There were glaring questions that we needed to get answers to.
00:20Was this death a fatal agreement?
00:23She started almost incessantly with,
00:25I'm gonna kill myself, I want you to kill me.
00:27In his mind, he's someone who gave his life in exchange for hers.
00:32Or is it cold-blooded murder disguised as a mercy killing?
00:36They feared for their lives.
00:37They thought he would come and hunt them down.
00:44He was overwhelmed.
00:46He was just gonna take matters into his own hands.
00:50In the end, you can't go around playing God.
00:579-1-1, what is your emergency?
01:02Um, I just shot my wife.
01:07You just shot your wife?
01:10Yes, ma'am.
01:12Okay.
01:13Is she awake?
01:14No, she's dead.
01:15On March 27, 2017, there was a call to 9-1-1 about a shooting outside of a memory care center.
01:33Do you still have the weapon?
01:34Yes, but I'm unloading it and setting it off to the side.
01:36The caller calmly reported what he had done and was relatively unemotional.
01:40What is your name?
01:41Steve Crusby.
01:42The caller is 62-year-old Steven Crusby.
01:57The victim was his wife, 61-year-old Pam Crusby.
02:03And you say your wife is beyond help?
02:07Yes, ma'am.
02:14Given the bizarre nature of the call, detectives approached the scene with a mix of curiosity and dread.
02:21When that call came out, my mindset was, you know, this is not possible.
02:26Someone's just not calling to say, I just did this.
02:28This could be a prank.
02:30As I'm driving along, the dispatchers were giving us additional details that made me realize,
02:35oh, this is actually real.
02:37This person's still on the phone.
02:39You okay, baby?
02:40I'm fine.
02:41Okay, who are you talking to, Steve?
02:43What's that?
02:45Who are you talking to?
02:46I was just talking to her.
02:48Okay, so she is breathing?
02:51No, ma'am.
02:53At one point, he's talking to her still as if she's still alive.
02:57It was almost like he was in some kind of disbelief.
03:02As we approached Parkside Inn.
03:04It's an assisted living facility.
03:06And it is pretty much the only physical building on that block.
03:09We're expecting some sort of chaos because we're responding to a shooting.
03:15When we approached, we saw nothing.
03:18The parking lot was empty, so that even added to our confusion.
03:22So we're communicating on the radio with our dispatchers asking, hey, have the person come out to the parking lot so we can see them.
03:30Can you walk out to the street, Steve, for me?
03:33But I want you to have your hands up so that they know that you don't have the gun on you.
03:37Okay?
03:38Yes.
03:39Officers were looking for him.
03:41And the dispatchers were still trying to get him to come out.
03:44But he was hesitant.
03:46Let me know when you're with them, Steve.
03:48Ma'am, I gotta go get with my wife.
03:50No, I need to make sure the officer gets you, Steve, because I don't want anything to happen to you, okay?
03:55All right.
03:57Once he actually listened, he came out to the parking lot.
04:01When we laid eyes on him, we didn't see a typical homicidal maniac.
04:06We just saw an older man who does not appear that he can hurt a fly just walking out.
04:13He was not agitated.
04:15You know, he looked a bit sad, but he was quite cooperative at the time.
04:20Once we put handcuffs on him, we asked him, okay, where's the gun and where's your wife?
04:24And he told us she's in the back of the building by the patio.
04:32Lo and behold, we found her on the ground in the grass, just a few feet away from the actual patio.
04:38We did not see a bloody murder scene.
04:44All we saw was a lady laying there on her back with a very small wound on her chest.
04:52She was shot.
04:55It was at close range.
04:57There were not multiple shots, and there was very little blood for someone who was shot to death in the heart.
05:04Looks like it was done by someone who really knew what he was doing and wanted to end her life right away.
05:10This was no ordinary perpetrator.
05:12This was a marksman.
05:13This was someone who knew where exactly to shoot.
05:17As we looked at the body, there was nothing about the body that suggested any kind of struggle.
05:22No scratch marks, no defensive wound.
05:26We did find the gun with five additional rounds in the magazine, and the gun was already made safe and placed on a half wall at the patio.
05:35It's clear to police Stephen Crespi isn't trying to hide.
05:41His straightforward and thoughtful cooperation is in stark contrast to the crime before them.
05:47But he is clear this wasn't a struggle or an accident.
05:51It was a request.
05:53He said, I just shot my wife.
05:55She asked me to do it.
05:57We're in disbelief, and she's not here to actually speak for herself.
06:01The way I looked at it, automatically, I'm like, this is a homicide.
06:06And we had a person who did it in custody.
06:09It may appear that, okay, yes, he was doing something to help her, but ultimately, he's a killer.
06:15You killed your wife, and it is, in fact, a crime.
06:22The night of the incident, I was 37.
06:24My sister called and said, you need to get down to Parkside.
06:28And I was like, why, what's going on?
06:30There's been an incident.
06:32I can't tell you.
06:33Get down there.
06:34You got to go.
06:36Okay.
06:39My mom was at Parkside assisted living facility for about two to three months at this point.
06:45I honestly thought, like, my mom had injured herself.
06:51She was diagnosed with frontal temporal lobe dementia a little more than a year before this happened.
06:58It's a very aggressive form of Alzheimer's.
07:01And at night, a lot of times, my mom would get aggressive.
07:05And so I figured this may have been one of those incidents, and they just needed somebody else down there to help control the situation.
07:13I get there, and there's cops everywhere.
07:19This is a little more than just my mom being aggressive.
07:26And I remember walking up the scene, and there was another police officer there, and he was like, who are you? Can I help you?
07:34My name is Matthew Crusby.
07:36My father and mother are here.
07:38And a detective came towards me.
07:41And he goes, I need to inform you that your mother is deceased.
07:46And he was like, your father shot your mother.
07:50I didn't, I, I, I, I, I still don't know how to take that.
08:03My mom was a huge influence in my life.
08:09She's honestly the strongest woman that I know.
08:13My initial reaction is like, you gotta be kidding me. Like, what happened?
08:18My mom and dad met at a Marine Corps ball in 1974.
08:25She was working as a civilian at a Navy contractor, and he was in the Marines guarding Arlington National Cemetery.
08:33He was willing to dance when none of the other guys were willing to dance, and they danced together.
08:38One of their favorite things to do was swing dance.
08:43And they could move. They could, they could really, really move.
08:47Pam and Steve complimented each other. They were two sides of each other's heart.
08:52They always were thoughtful and respectful about what each other thought and felt.
08:56And they didn't operate unless it was together.
09:02They got married in 1976, and they had three children in four years.
09:07Andrew was the oldest, and then Stephanie, and then Matthew was the youngest. He was born in 1980.
09:13The children were always respectful, happy, playful, fun, curious, and just delightful, delightful children.
09:22My parents were married for 47 years, but the first half of my childhood, my dad was always gone.
09:28You know, he was in the military. He was constantly deployed here, there, come home for a few months and leave.
09:33Stationed in North Carolina as part of Special Warfare Operations, Steve's mission was to train America's elite soldiers, Navy SEALs and Green Berets.
09:43A lot of the stuff he does, I don't know and probably never will know.
09:47But when he was deployed, my mother was God.
09:52She had to be the head of the household, she had to be the disciplinarian, but she also used my mom, so she had this loving, caring, nurtured side of that.
10:01In 1994, Steven retires from the Marines. After settling his family in Florida, he devotes his time to the classroom, training high school students through ROTC.
10:10But by 2001, retirement leads him to an unexpected new passion.
10:17When he retired from the military after 23 years, he became a lighthouse keeper.
10:22And Pam would go and help him there.
10:26My parents were married for 47 years, and they just gave me the best example of what it means to truly love someone else.
10:34You know, the selflessness, you know what I mean, the sacrifices for each other.
10:39And you could see that.
10:43And now I have a police officer telling me that my father shot my mother and I was pissed.
10:50I was angry.
10:51I was trying to push back that cop to go in the back to find out what was going on.
10:58And my wife is standing to my right, and she sees my dad being escorted in handcuffs.
11:07I didn't see him.
11:09Had I saw him that night, I would have probably been in jail myself.
11:13I would have went after my father. I was enraged, you know, because I was just told that he killed my mother.
11:21Come to find out, like we saw later, that just wasn't clear cut as it should be.
11:29No other family member said that Pam Crosby wanted to commit suicide.
11:35Pam wanting to die was perhaps a creation in Steven Crosby's mind.
11:45It got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore.
11:58It got to be a crime.
11:59Matthew Crosby says,
12:00Matthew Crosby and his two siblings are looking for answers after learning their father, Steven, is responsible for the death of their mother, Pam.
12:09My sister, she arrived at the facility.
12:12My brother didn't come till later.
12:15We were just kind of in shock.
12:17We didn't really understand what was going on.
12:22Within a couple of hours of the crime, Steven Crosby is taken to the Boynton Beach Police Department,
12:27Beach Police Department where he's interrogated when they asked Stephen
12:35Crespi if he was hurting he said it was his heart and that really will get you
12:42because here's a person who by all accounts loves his wife dearly police
12:46meanwhile who are sympathetic to him are still trying to drill down whether this
12:50was the crime out of compassion for his wife or a crime of convenience
12:56a lot of thinking my life has been saying to me lately she knew that there was
13:01something wrong with her she didn't know what and every time I would try to
13:05explain to her she couldn't comprehend it she has Alzheimer's disease she said
13:11that she didn't know anything anymore she can't do what other people can do I always
13:16told her that that was okay I told her about that and then she said she wanted
13:22to kill herself is that what she said today she's been saying that for four months now
13:30Stephen told the detective that Pam started forgetting things and getting agitated about
13:37four years earlier the simplest tasks were just overwhelming to her things became most
13:43she was pronounced in 2012 she started to withdraw she worked at the clerk of courts and she just
13:51said she couldn't stand to go to work anymore she noticed she was having issues at work with the
13:58numbers and I just thought that was kind of odd because numbers were always her
14:02thing she said life is just no fun anymore they did a cerebral spinal fluid analysis and as the test came
14:13back it was what you really didn't want it to be a diagnosis for she had been diagnosed with early onset
14:20Alzheimer's at like age 59 which is really really rare a lot of things rapidly that she loved to do she
14:29could no longer do anymore she could brush her own teeth but I had to remind her she could eat on her
14:39own but I had to remind her this strongest woman I know and in this moment she's you know reduced to a
14:57child there were times when it became sometimes combative and even violent it was like two o'clock in
15:08the morning she sprung up out of bed again and she said to me get the up and she grabbed me by by
15:15the shirt to Pam you gotta stop Pam you gotta stop and then she started striking me sometimes she was
15:22very aware and she knew what was going on and then other times she completely had no control and I
15:27think that must have been terrifying despite moments of clarity Pam's violent outbursts and
15:34refusal to come to terms with her condition leave her family struggling to get her the help she
15:39needs she wouldn't go to the doctors like she was supposed to and she wouldn't let me help her
15:45every time I would do something to try to get her more help she would get very very agitated
15:55this is not a Pam Crespi they all knew this was someone in the body of Pam Crespi who mentally was
16:04someone entirely different they got to a point in 2016 where they made a decision as a family to go
16:11ahead put her in a memory care facility but she absolutely hated being in that facility there were
16:18times she thought she was working at the assisted living that she was there to help people because she
16:23just didn't understand she was one of the patients did you leave your house today saying this may be
16:27the day that this is gonna happen okay so you left your house there thinking if she asked me to do
16:32this you're gonna do it yes Steven walks investigators through the moments leading up to shooting his wife
16:38I took her out for coffee after she ate dinner there it was early evening they went at a coffee and
16:47then he drove her back to the facility in the parking lot she goes do we have to go back there and I
16:54was like well yes we do the closer we got the more unhappy she would get incessantly with I'm gonna kill myself I want you to kill me
17:03I mean the anguish that she was was going through just unbelievable it was a horror story went out and
17:14started walking around with her the whole time she's pretty much begging him like if you loved me you
17:19would do this just was getting more and more and more desperate she said I feel like I'm trapped here
17:25I'm never going to be able to get out this is not how I want to live the rest of my life she kept
17:30you know going on and on and on and just got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore
17:36Steven Crespi a marine kept a gun in his car
17:41you leave her outside and then go to your car to get a gun yes
17:45she was looking me dead in the eyes okay she said anything yes what she said she said I want you to
17:53kill me how far away from her were you yes and I thought maybe if I took it out that she would
18:05maybe say don't do this he stood really close almost close enough he could have kissed her and
18:10he held the gun against her chest according to Steven she seemed to be encouraged by seeing the gun and
18:16wanted to die in an interview room in Boynton Beach Florida Steven Crespi gives a harrowing
18:35account of how he helped his wife Pam and her life she just stood there and it was like I I want to die
18:43I want you to kill me and I couldn't take it anymore she was so broken hearted the gun went off a bullet went through her heart
18:55he explained that when he looked at her face all he saw was relief I was willing to sacrifice
19:20anything I had to sacrifice to get her where she wanted to be he put the onus on her that this was
19:27a killing because the victim wanted it he was adamant that it was an assisted suicide not murder he said he
19:35did it for compassionate reasons but even though Steven said that Pam wanted to die in this situation
19:42he said that he did it he's the one who pulled the trigger the state of Florida does not have mercy
19:48killing if you take someone's life regardless of the reason you give us it is still murder at the end
19:54of the interview he's arrested he's taken into custody and charged with murder as per normal
20:01practice law enforcement did a DNA swab not only of Crespi but also of the gun Steven told law enforcement
20:09that he had thought about doing this before so this showed premeditation and that's first-degree
20:15murder according to the state of Florida that makes you not only eligible for life in prison but the death
20:22penalty Steven Crespi made it clear from the outset that he was not guilty of murder and that the
20:32reality was that Pam wanted to die she had been asking Steve for a long time to help her with that
20:40he was hoping that she would change her mind but he also understood that by having the gun that it made
20:51it possible for for this to happen his only objective and only wish was to see this charge reflect the
21:00truthfulness of what occurred as Steven remains in jail insisting it was a mercy killing detectives
21:08looked to the three Crespi children who struggled to comprehend their father's claims as they speak
21:13to police all the kids were in shock um they were kind of in disbelief that this had happened and they
21:19were disappointed that their dad hadn't talked to them or asked for help and let them know how bad it
21:25was I believe he murdered my mother I do not want to talk to you I have nothing to say to you at all
21:33Andrew Steven's oldest son and Stephanie his daughter also thought he was a murderer basically that they
21:41had he had taken the easy way and murdered their mom my father's he's having some difficulty with processing my
21:48mom's condition I don't know what's been said about other children everything that we possibly could for
21:56him he never saw it coming they started telling the cops that he was overwhelmed by trying to take
22:04care of Pam and he wasn't asking for help and he could have asked for help they said that he was one
22:21of these people who had such hubris about being able to take care of everything and fix it that he was
22:27just going to take matters into his own hands one key detail Stephen gave police is firmly rejected by
22:35his children no other family member said that Pam Crosby wanted to commit suicide I knew she was
22:43declining but she had very lucid moments with us she would never fly outside I want to kill myself I want
22:49to die also Pam Crosby was very religious she converted to Catholicism and so suicide would be a real
22:59no-no in the Catholic Church if you take your own life you're you know eternally damned and that's why
23:06her family and others thought that the whole wanting to die was perhaps a creation in Stephen Crosby's mind
23:14on April 10th less than a month after Pam Crosby was shot and killed her husband Stephen appears in
23:23court for his arraignment we announced that we were seeking first-degree murder charges we also said that
23:30we would not be seeking the death penalty as prosecutors were human beings too and were
23:36sympathetic to the fact that he was a caregiver and he loved his wife but in the end you can't go
23:42around playing God Stephen pled not guilty and said that this was not premeditated murder Stephen
23:52and Pam's youngest son Matthew finds that as time passes following Pam's death he begins to see more
23:59of his father's side it took me about a month and a half after the incident took place I had gotten over
24:06my anger and I just started to process you know what was my mom going through what was my dad going
24:13through do I agree with of what he did no absolutely not of course I didn't agree with him but I understood
24:23why my dad's fixer if something's wrong he's gonna figure out why and fix it and the one thing he
24:36couldn't do and would have never been able to do is fix my mother I didn't know a lot of what my dad was
24:53going through at this time a little bit of me feels guilty I was there for my mother but I was not
25:04involved in a lot of her care I could have been there maybe a little more if my mom was truly aware of
25:15what was going on and I believe she was my mom you didn't want to live like this and I think they both
25:24had a hand in it this change of heart is welcomed by Steven's defense team who are gearing up for an
25:31arduous battle as we started defending the case it was clear that the police felt it was an open and
25:39shut case as a result of that they didn't examine and evaluate everything that should have been and
25:46there were glaring questions that we needed to get answers to the big question was was there reason
25:54to suspect that this was possibly a suicide as opposed to a homicide and was there more investigation that
26:03needed to be done to uncover the truth accused of killing his wife Pam Steven Crespi watches from jail as
26:23his case stalls for months then years because it's a homicide these court cases take a very long time
26:32and the fact that COVID happened delayed the process even longer so he was in jail in prison waiting trial
26:41for quite a bit of time while both sides wait for their day in court the Crespi siblings work on
26:47finding common ground despite their differences me and my brother and sister for about two three years
26:53after the incident we still had a good standing good relationship I I still at this point supported my dad
26:59they they supported my mom's side but we still talked because we made an agreement we said hey let's not
27:07let this destroy us because it really doesn't involve us so let's let the courts handle this and let's not
27:15let this ruin our relationship three years pass until in 2020 the family prepares to meet in court again
27:24for a bond hearing in Florida the court has discretion to grant bond we took a considerable amount of time to
27:34build a defense case to say that he should get a bond so that he can be at home and we can finish
27:42preparing the case we had witnesses from all walks of life military people that knew him in his personal
27:51life and family Matthew who had prepared a bedroom for him and a place to stay everything was fine a week
28:00or two before my dad's bond hearing that was the moment things and people shifted I get a call from my
28:09brother what do you know about this bond hearing what about the bond hearing did you know about it
28:14yes I did why didn't you tell any of us I thought we made an agreement to let the courts handle the courts
28:20and he was like yeah but this is a little more serious are you thinking about taking them in and
28:25I was like yeah if it goes down and then we three weighed my sister in and it just got more and more
28:31you know they said some things I can't believe you're you know you would take in a murderer
28:36the tensions between the family come to a head on the day of the hearing about six months after
28:44COVID shut everything down he finally got a bond hearing in September of 2020 and everybody in the
28:50court were masked all three siblings testify at the bond hearing Matthew for the defense and Andrew and
28:57Stephanie on the side of the prosecution this was a split family and this was something that really
29:04weighed on those who loved Pam Crosby it's all important how you relate to the defendant who's my
29:10father Stephanie basically told the judge that she didn't trust her dad the claim that this was an
29:17accident is absolutely false there was no way after what he had done with the mom that she could
29:22believe in him he had sacrificed their trust when the going got tough he chose to take things into
29:29his own hands and make it go away my brother and sister they called him narcissistic they called
29:35him controlling unstable or irrational and murdering someone it's his way of showing love and I would hate
29:42to know what he could do to other loved ones if he's let out into the real world they feared for
29:47their lives they thought my dad would come and hunt them down they both painted a view I never knew
30:02they had of my father but to one that doesn't exist of my father Stephen's oldest son Andrew was on
30:08zoom for the bond hearing as well and he was vehement that he just stay in jail my father
30:14should have sent me something to the effect of I wish I could just put a round in her chest and then
30:18this work and put her out of our misery and I thought that he was exaggerating and speaking out of
30:24frustration regarding the situation until he wasn't when Andrew appeared remotely at the bond hearing
30:33and said I heard my dad say that he wanted to put a round in her chest it's really damning not only
30:40because it shows premeditation but it also shows that Stephen Crespi allegedly had this intention before
30:47things got even worse that he was thinking about it at least a year in advance my dad was hurt for a while
30:55because of my brother and sister and the things they said during that bond hearing he still loves them he still
31:02cares for them don't think that he doesn't but he's hurt because the words don't line up with how
31:09we were raised with what took place he feels abandoned by them when the judge announced her ruling she
31:17denied bond saying the evidence of premeditated murder was too strong to release him he was being
31:25put on trial for murder what's to say he wouldn't try to kill himself or others especially because he
31:30seemingly had some sort of messiah complex where he believed in killing other people for their own
31:35benefit we were there to do justice for Pam this was an unjustified killing a homicide that needed to
31:45be punished appropriately and we were not going to stop
31:49after a contentious bond hearing Stephen Crespi is denied bond and sent back to prison to await trial
32:10for the murder of his wife Pam Stephen went back to jail and our focus turned on finding the best
32:17experts in crime scene reconstruction and DNA analysis all with the objective to prove that this was an
32:27assisted suicide and not a murder the defense enlists forensics expert Tiffany Roy to aid their case
32:34they asked her to go back over the evidence collected at the time of the incident first thing I do in every
32:41case when I get the case file notes is to check for human error because human people do this work and they
32:47make mistakes as we're going through this process we found out that Pamela's hands should have been
32:55tested for gunshot residue and were not back at the time this was such an open-and-shut case that the
33:02medical examiner had no evidence of GSR gunshot residue this is missing this data would be important
33:09the presence or absence of gunshot residue on someone's hands might be telling if gunshot residue
33:15testing had been done as it should have been it could have shown that Pam assisted in the suicide
33:22seeing this discrepancy the defense strategy is to turn the state's evidence against them in an
33:29effort to show that not enough was done to rule out suicide as the cause of Pam's death starting
33:35with the DNA DNA was important in this case because they tested the murder weapon which was a gun that
33:41was owned by mr. Crespi and drew conclusions that mr. Crespi's DNA was on his own firearm but the tools
33:48that were being used at the crime lab can only examine certain parts and pieces of the profile so there were
33:55things that were being missed and so we needed a higher powered tool to examine that information
34:01Tiffany helped us do additional testing on samples that law enforcement have there were several samples
34:13after they were examined that showed DNA traits that were similar to mrs. Crespi on the firearm the area
34:20where mrs. Crespi's DNA was most present was the grip and that made it a very real possibility that she could have
34:27handled that weapon this was huge because her contact with the gun suggests that in fact she was involved in the
34:35discharging of the weapon but can the presence of her DNA alone prove assisted suicide we could argue as prosecutors that she did not want to die she was trying to push the gun away we knew the prosecutor was a
34:48to show a pushing away of the gun so we hired an expert on firearms forensic reconstruction of shootings and he reconstructed the shooting to see whether or not the wounds to the shirt and the DNA on the gun were consistent with showing that Pam embraced and pulled the gun
35:18the gun toward her
35:20this showed that Steve did not act alone and that Pam very likely assisted in her own death
35:27this stunning evidence suggests Pamela may have assisted in the shooting that night
35:32Steven never mentioned this detail to anyone including his own defense attorney
35:38I think the reason he didn't mention the specific act of pulling the gun toward her at the time
35:45was that the investigators never asked for the specifics in terms of how it happened
35:52he said he shot his wife that was uncontested however they never asked what Pam did or what role she may have
36:01played and so by not asking the questions the investigation never got into that part of the case
36:07I also think that often under periods of stress people sometimes don't remember everything exactly as it happens and they oftentimes will fill in gaps or missing information
36:23with information that's most detrimental to themselves and because of her faith as a strong catholic on some level he believed that by not talking about that
36:35he was protecting her in a sense the defense informs Steven's son Matthew of their findings which forces him to reconsider his mother's final moments
36:45there's no other way that my mom's DNA could have got on there unless she was holding that gun
36:51after the DNA evidence what I believe happened is yes my father went to the car and got the gun
36:59yes my father presented it to my mother at which point my mother
37:13I still I still battle with this like I believe my mom took her own life and my father did give her the gun and when
37:27when she shot herself um just all the guilt of it came back to my father so I do believe my dad had a portion in it I don't think he solely pulled the trigger himself
37:43I think the ultimate decision to take my mother's life was my mother's
37:49this is very clear as I say
37:55it's to the death of a party
37:57being one of my father's son
37:59faced with the defense's new evidence of assisted suicide
38:02the state's attorney needs to rethink their approach
38:04this was a game changer because we were all set to pursue murder charges
38:09certainly would what seemed like a straightforward murder case against
38:29Stephen Crespi takes a turn when forensic evidence gives the defense room
38:33to argue it was a mercy killing the defense paid a lot of money for an
38:38expert who then revealed that Pam's DNA was found on the grip of the gun and
38:46that's why we decided to enter into conversations about lowering the charge
38:51in Florida there's a rarely used statute of manslaughter by assisted suicide so
38:58we met the evidence where it was and told the defense that we'd be willing to
39:03enter into agreement where the defendant would plead guilty to manslaughter by
39:08assisted suicide and would leave it up to the judge to do the sentencing when
39:14Stephen learned of the offer he was relieved he felt that finally after six
39:21years we were getting an offer that was consistent with the truth and at that
39:27time he pled guilty to manslaughter by assisted suicide
39:32in August 2023 Stephen finally gets to go back to court for sentencing
39:39with no priors he was eligible for a sentence of between 10 and 30 years our case was reinforced
39:49by the fact that the family members at least almost all of them were on our side they were the ones who
39:55wanted Stephen Crespi to go to prison as long as possible they clearly did not like him they hated what
40:00he did they did not forgive him and they wanted the maximum penalty during sentencing my brother and
40:06sister gave victim impact statements a lot of stuff they said to me was just vindictive if you viewed my
40:20father that way then why would you even be around him their words and their actions didn't line up to
40:26me and I didn't understand that what struck me was when Stephen Crespi voluntarily chose to give a
40:35statement at sentencing and I was a bit surprised at how defiant and angry he was he finally gets to
40:42speak in court he basically says where was everybody helping me the judge she was not unsympathetic to
40:49Stephen Crespi she understood where he was coming from if the family wasn't so adamant if Stephanie and
40:56Andrew didn't feel the way they did then this would have been probably treated differently in the end she
41:02decided to go for 20 years when they came back with 20 I was just at a loss for words that's a life
41:15sentence from my father he's old in his mind he's someone who gave his life in exchange for hers he's
41:24not going to be able to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery his family is permanently divided my dad
41:32is currently 72 I still go visit him I talked to him at least once a week on the phone my dad has not
41:40spoken to anybody my brother or sister since the incident I have no plans to ever speak with my
41:47brother or sister again I miss my mom a lot she raised me she was my best friend no matter what I was
42:08going through whenever my mother smiled I knew it was okay or it would be all right I just want to see her smile one more time
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