It was spring 2013 and Gary Britton, the Trenton Police lead detective in the Tracy Crews murder case, had gotten a tip from a Pennsylvania prison official that a female inmate at Muncy claimed she had information implicating Crews’ widow, Sheena Robinson-Crews, in his murder.
By this time, Britton’s investigation was essentially closed. Police had already arrested the two men, William Brown and Nigel Joseph Dawson, suspected of fatally shooting Crews inside his Whittaker Avenue residence on Sept. 12, 2008.
Further, a grand jury had returned an indictment in 2012 charging the men with murder, felony murder, robbery and weapons offenses.
Still, Britton and another detective, Matthew Norton, traveled to Muncy to meet with the inmate, Maria Cappelli, if only to conduct a cursory interview that failed to explore essential details about whether Robinson-Crews, who was serving time on a drug conviction, had committed the ultimate act of betrayal against her husband.
Early on, Britton concluded Cappelli’s story — that Robinson-Crews admitted she orchestrated the murder — wasn’t “credible.” Cappelli had painted an intricate portrait for the state prison official in a two-page statement that has come to be known as the Muncy report, which was only recently turned over to the defense.
One attorney called it the “most exculpatory piece of evidence” the defense has gotten so far.
In it, Cappelli claimed Robinson-Crews admitted handing the killers keys to the couple’s apartment. She had even instructed them to “pick a time” for the hit. But when Britton interviewed Cappelli, he seemed to get fixated on minute details the inmate got wrong.
For example, he said Cappelli claimed the couple was out celebrating hours before the murder, which he said wasn’t true. He also said Cappelli mentioned there were two children involved.
The state has said Crews was gunned down in the kitchen shortly after he tucked his then-2-year-old daughter into bed. The Trentonian reported Crews had another child from a prior relationship, but that child wasn’t at the apartment at the time of the murder.
These discrepancies led Britton to dismiss Cappelli’s story.
“I thought there were some things there that weren’t 100 percent accurate,” he said at a hearing that took place outside of the jury’s presence. The jury, which hasn’t heard testimony since last week, is expected to meet with the judge, Andrew Smithson, on Thursday to determine whether they have read ongoing news coverage of the trial.
Britton suspected Cappelli had done that before their 2013 interview and was padding her account with details she parceled from articles.
“I suspected she was doing a lit bit more posturing,” he said. “She was trying to come off as more intelligent than she was.”
Steven Lember, Brown’s attorney, objected to Britton’s characterization, calling it a “two year after the fact verbal recitation.”
Lember said Britton had a vested interest to dismiss Cappelli’s story because it didn’t “fit in” with the state’s theory that Brown, Crews’ best friend, former roommate and the best man at his wedding, and Dawson killed Crews.
Britton sparred with Lember several times during a contentious cross-examination. At one point, Lember accused Britton of parsing phrases and “playing word games” when he didn’t respond or responded vaguely to Lember’s inquiries.
But for all the accusations that Britton was dodging their questions, defense attorneys say they elicited a damaging admission: Britton testified he didn’t document his interview with Cappelli. There was no sense, Britton explained, because Cappelli wasn’t truthful.
Lember compared Britton’s omission to the “proverbial tree in the forest that fell that nobody heard.”
“You’re a veteran,” Lember said. “You’re always taught to record and memorialize everything.”
Britton responded that he has taken a number of informal statements from potential witnesses he didn’t memorialize.
For example, he said, he didn’t take notes or document a conversation he had with Robinson-Crews in which she expressed concerns about her safety now that she is out of prison.
Britton didn’t elaborate about why Robinson-Crews feels like she is in jeopardy, with the supposed killers locked up behind bars.
“In my line of work, everyone is a potential informant,” Britton said, dismissively.
Defense attorneys contend police didn’t focus enough on Robinson-Crews, ignoring initial suspicions that arose after an officer overheard one of her phone conversations hours after the murder.
Police believed Robinson-Crews was speaking to whomever shot her husband when she said, “You didn’t have to shoot him. You got what you needed.”
Lember has said phone records show Robinson-Crews never called his client. But for reasons that remain unclear, Robinson-Crews told investigators she was convinced Brown and Dawson were behind the murder.
Britton testified Robinson-Crews had also accused Brown of pointing a handgun at her sometime after the murder. The accusation was investigated by Michael Terman, who was the lead detective on the homicide case at the time, but it was determined to be unfounded.
Lember has assailed Robinson-Crews’ credibility, at one point calling her a “pathological liar.”
Crews’ brother, Neal, said he never “vibed “ with Robinson-Crews and she wasn’t really accepted into the family. But he said Wednesday he doesn’t believe she was capable of setting up Crews’ murder.
“Why would she do something like that?” he said. “That was his wife. He married her for a reason. He loved her, and she loved him.”
Robinson-Crews was tied to the Sex Money Murder set of the Bloods street gang after she was arrested by federal and local officials in Bucks County for selling heroin in 2009, months after her husband’s death.
According to one published report, Robinson-Crews was previously affiliated with the rival G-Shine set to which her husband belonged. She had reportedly switched allegiance sometime after her husband’s death and was arrested with another man, Peter Manning, who is a known member of the Sex Money Murder set.
Robinson-Crews is expected to take the witness stand when trial resumes, but defense attorneys have said they would be shocked if she didn’t invoke her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.
Britton was asked by the prosecutor, Al Garcia, if his conversation with Cappelli changed his mind about Brown or Dawson’s guilt.
“No,” he said.