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Published: 2007-05-09 07:05:00
Updated: 2007-05-09 22:21:55

Bond Set for Suspect in NCCU Student's Slaying


Bond Set for Suspect in NCCU Student's Slaying
Bond Set for Suspect in NCCU Student's Slaying
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Bond was set Wednesday for a woman accused in the slaying of a North Carolina Central University graduate student.

A judge set Shannon Crawley's bond at $175,000 in connection with the death of Denita Smith.

Police believe Crawley killed Smith on Jan. 4. Authorities said Crawley shot the 25-year-old in the back of the head outside Smith's apartment in Durham. A maintenance worker found Smith's body at the bottom of a stairwell.

In court Wednesday, prosecutor David Saacks said Crawley, a former Guilford County 911 dispatcher, planned the killing. He told the court that Crawley showed up to work late on the day of Smith's shooting and had time to commit the crime.

Police have not said anything about a motive for the shooting. Court documents state Crawley lived blocks from Smith's fiancé, Jermeir Stroud, who is a Greensboro police officer. He has told investigators that Crawley was stalking him.

Duane Bryant, Crawley's attorney, said his client plans to plead not guilty. He said any suggestion of a jealous love triangle is off-base and that there are questions about whether Stroud was actually Smith's fiancé. He also said Crawley does not have a prior history of mental problems.

Police said a woman matching Crawley's description drove away from the apartment complex in a burgundy Ford Explorer. days before they arrested her, investigators had searched Crawley's house and a burgundy Ford Explorer that she owns.

The warrant shows they seized a Guilford Metro 911 uniform, a Sprint phone bill, a computer, photographs, e-mail printouts, two gunshot residue kits and a floppy disk. Crawley was arrested in Greensboro on Jan. 9.

Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty in the case.


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Latest Comments
She should sit in jail. We all know that she got to be sick to just kill someone so that she can have the man that both I bet were sleeping with.

eyes "But since she killed one of her own they will set bond"

this says a lot about you eyeswideshut, we are all "one of her own"

Jack Schitt-Have you just got up and bumped your head. If she was white she would be let out on her word that she would appear.

Another race subject----unreal....Now if you had said if she killed a white person she would not be getting out at all. But since she killed one of her own they will set bond. That would be true.

It doesn't take long before someone gets off track with their comment.

Lilreno-I didn't see any where in any new articles what her salary was. She didn't do too bad she lived in a home in the boyfriends sub-division. She could have been getting a sizable child support check and a okay income. You didn't pay for her to live then so why do you feel you will be taking care of her children. Some people just don't know how to critize the topic going on.

Leave the children out of this horrible mess, they will suffer enough without them thinking that anybody like "YOU' will have to help care for them in any since of the word.

She would need to raise $26,250(15%)of the bond amount. This is rather low considering that she has been charged with capital murder. Her family may have had a lot to do with her having such a low bond amount.

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