Trial delayed in slaying of NCCU student

Durham, N.C. — The trial of a Greensboro woman accused of killing a North Carolina Central University graduate student two years ago has been postponed a second time.

Shannon Elizabeth Crawley, 28, is charged with murder in the Jan. 4, 2007, shooting death of Denita Monique Smith, 25. She was shot inside a stairwell of Campus Crossing Apartments in Durham and then fell down several steps to the sidewalk, police said.

Police arrested Crawley, a dispatcher for Guilford Metro 911 in Greensboro, five days later. They have said little about a possible motive for the shooting or the connection between the women.

According to a search warrant in the case, Crawley had been stalking Smith's fiancé, Jermeir Stroud, a Greensboro police officer, before the shooting.

Crawley's trial had been set for November but was delayed when tests on evidence didn't come back in time. Now, a judge has granted her lawyer's request to withdraw from the case, and she has been assigned a public defender.

A new trial date hasn't been set.