Teen sentenced in double fatal shooting
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NEW CUMBERLAND -- The teenager who admitted in November to murdering his mother and sister nearly three years ago in Weirton was sentenced Tuesday in Hancock County Circuit Court to two consecutive 40-year terms for second-degree murder.
Lawyers for Connor Crowe, now 16, prior to sentencing asked the court for mercy, arguing there were mitigating factors -- his age, the pandemic, the fact that he'd been diagnosed at one time as mildly autistic and numerous other claims -- that warranted a lesser sentence so he could get out "and still make something of himself."
But 1st Judicial Circuit Court Judge Jason Cuomo wasn't swayed, pointing out the youthful offender didn't consider mitigating factors when he took the lives of his mother, 39-year-old Melissa Rowland, and his sister Madison, 15.
"You're asking me to give you a sentence that is less than the maximum allowed, that you be given an opportunity to get out sooner, potentially make something of your life because you're only16 now," Cuomo said, telling Crowe, who had his head bowed, to look at him while he spoke. "I want to remind you that your sister was 15 at the time you murdered her. She was younger than you are right now, and you gave her no consideration, no mitigation for something less than a death sentence.
"Your sister would have graduated high school, I think about a week or two ago," Cuomo continued. "She'll never get that opportunity to go to college. She'll never get to walk down the aisle with her father and get married or have kids of her own. You took that from her. You gave her no opportunity to make something of herself, but you're asking me to do that for you."
Cuomo pointed to opinions from psychological experts that Crowe had "displayed very little empathy" for what he'd done, reminding the youth one of the experts had told the court Crowe's empathy was "directed toward the fact that you were sorry you didn't get away with it." Another said he feared "if someone were to cross him or he didn't get his way he is a threat, especially to people he lives with or gets most angry with."
Crowe was 13 in September 2020 when he admits firing multiple shots into the chest and torso of his mother and sister, killing them. He then ran out of their Ardmore Avenue home and told neighbors a stranger had walked into the house and gunned them down, telling one of them he shot the mystery intruder in the shoulder and pulled a gun out of his pajama pants.
Bullet fragments and shell casings police found at the scene matched the gun Crowe had in his pants, and gunshot residue was found on him, and police found no evidence that anyone had forced their way into the home or fled through the back door.
Cuomo said the fact that Crowe fabricated a story for police demonstrates the youth "had the intelligence and presence of mind to try to steer the authorities away from him and toward some made up intruder."
Quoting the case file, the judge reminded Crowe he'd told a caseworker from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources "he thought it would be believable ... something to try to show it was not me. I thought I could get off and live with my dad."
Cuomo, still quoting the case file, said Crowe admitted to one of the medical professionals "that he'd thought of killing his mother and sister previously, that his original intention was to kill himself, but he was afraid to die.
"Now that's significant, because that tells me that he understands the finality of death," Cuomo said. "And he understood it before he committed these murders. That tells me that he knows shooting himself would be painful, and it would end his life and he didn't want to die, even though he thought about it. He consciously thought about it and made a decision not to (kill himself) because he was afraid and yet he was intelligent enough and mature enough to direct that fear away from himself and toward others. It was OK for somebody else to die just not him, and that somebody else was his mother and his sister. And that's the most disturbing thing."
The judge dismissed Crowe's allegations of abuse, saying that prior to the killings there was no suggestion of violence in the home and pointed out he told a health and human resources worker his case was in no way similar to that of another youth in detention who'd been charged with a murder and claimed self-defense "because I did it out of anger and hate."
Hancock County Prosecutor Steven Dragisich said afterward he feels justice was served.
"The fact remains, he knew what he was doing was wrong," Dragisich said. "He thought about it beforehand and knew it was wrong. He thought about maybe not doing it, but he did it anyway. And then he thought of a defense. All that shows the danger there and the mitigating factors are very minimal compared to what happened in his state of mind. He clearly knew what he was doing, clearly knew what he was doing was wrong, (so) the punishment fit the crime."
Dragisich said it boils down to public safety.
"Our duty is to protect the public and keep everybody safe, and this is the best way to do it," he said.
Crowe, he said, "knew the finality of death. He knew he didn't want to have that finality himself but he had no (problem) whatsoever in making that finality for his mother and his sister, who were 15 and 39. That was a telling thing for the judge and for the state as well, in sentencing."
"We can't give these two young ladies their lives back. We can't give the grandparents their granddaughter back or their daughter. But justice was served the best way it could have been. And I'm very pleased that Judge Cuomo sentenced Crowe to 80 years, I don't think he should have received anything less than that. That's what the state has urged from the beginning and the judge saw it the same way and I'm very happy about that. I just hope that the family can gain some type of closure in some way from the results of this case and the sentencing. Two wonderful ladies lost their lives and it was only right that he had Crowe be sentenced to a lifetime (in prison)."
Crowe was remanded to the Ronald Mullholland Juvenile Detention facility in Wheeling, where he'll remain until his 18th birthday when he'll be transferred to an adult prison to serve the rest of his sentence. He had waived his right to be tried as an adult and pleaded guilty on Nov. 1 to the second-degree murder charges.