Charges dropped in Crecente murder

Published 10:47 pm Saturday, February 16, 2008

AUSTIN, Texas — Charges were dropped Friday against the second man accused in the murder of a Texas high schooler who once lived in Moultrie.

Ricardo Roman, 24, was expected to be released after paperwork was completed Friday night, according to reports on the websites of Austin-area media.

Roman was accused of supplying the gun and ammunition used to kill Jennifer Crecente, a senior at Austin’s Bowie High School, in 2006.

Crecente’s family has ties to Moultrie, and she visited her father here for summers after her parents divorced. Both she and her father were involved in the Colquitt County Arts Center, and performances of the arts center’s production of “Oliver!” this past summer were dedicated to her memory. Crecente played a role in the arts center’s production of the same show nine years earlier.

Crecente, 18, was shot to death Feb. 15, 2006, in a wooded area near her home in Austin. Her boyfriend, 19-year-old Justin Allen Crabbe, also of Austin, pleaded guilty in July 2007 to killing her.

Crabbe had initially said he had been playing with the firearm when it went off and shot Crecente, according to www.statesman.com, the website for the Austin Statesman newspaper. After his plea, he said the shooting was part of a murder-suicide pact, but lawyers associated with the case said there was no evidence of such an agreement, the newspaper reported.

Crabbe was a convicted felon, so he couldn’t buy a gun. The Statesman reported Crabbe told police after his arrest that he and Crecente were going to rent an apartment together, and he gave Roman money to buy a gun for the apartment. Later, Crabbe, Roman and two others went to a sporting goods store to buy ammunition, the newspaper said.

Roman’s lawyer, Amanda McDaniel, said Roman believed the weapon was to protect the apartment Crabbe planned to get with Crecente, according to the Statesman. She said Crabbe gave Roman $1,000; he paid $200 for the gun and pocketed the rest.

After his plea, Crabbe agreed to testify against Roman, the Statesman said, but he has since changed his mind. He’s serving a 35-year sentence for Crecente’s murder, and he was not persuaded by the threat of a contempt of court charge, which carries only a six-month sentence.

Roman was charged with murder because under Texas law if he knowingly procured the weapon to kill her, he was just as guilty as the man who pulled the trigger. Without Crabbe’s testimony, prosecutors could not prove Roman knew what Crabbe planned to do with the gun, the Statesman said.

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