CLEVELAND — On leave from the violence he had survived in the war in Iraq, a young Marine was so wary of crime on the streets of his own home town that he carried only $8 to avoid becoming a robbery target.
Despite his caution, Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, 21, was shot point-black in the neck during a robbery at a bus stop. Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 4 1/2 months, until he died of an infection on May 18.
Two men have been charged in the attack, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Friday the case was under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
"It is an awful story," said Alberta Holt, the young Marine's aunt and his legal guardian when he was a teenager determined to flee a troubled Cleveland school for safer surroundings in the suburbs.
Crutchfield was attacked on Jan. 5 while he and his girlfriend were waiting for a bus. He had heeded the warnings of commanders that a Marine on leave might be seen as a prime robbery target with a pocketful of money, so he only carried $8, his military ID card and a bank card.
"They took it, turned his pockets inside out, took what he had and told him since he was a Marine and didn't have any money he didn't deserve to live. They put the gun to his neck and shot him," Holt told The Associated Press.
The two men charged in the attack were identified as Ean Farrow, 19, and Thomas Ray III, 20, both of Cleveland. Their attorneys did not respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment.
Crutchfield knew he was returning to Iraq for another tour of duty, but had hesitated to tell his family until he was nearing the end of his 30-day leave.
He apparently had a troubled family. Holt wouldn't discuss it except to say "his mom and dad didn't raise him, just his grandmother and me." He didn't smoke or drink, she said.
He had attended Cleveland's inner-city East High School, but asked that he be allowed to live with his aunt and grandmother and attend suburban Bedford High School for his final two years.
"He saw his school was in turmoil and asked to get out," Holt said.
Bedford High teachers recalled Crutchfield's smile, his pride in his appearance, his determination to join the Marine Corps after graduation in 2005 and his aspiration to become an architect.
"He was friendly and kind and willing to help out in any way that he could," counselor Yvonne Sims said in an e-mail.
Connie LaNasa, who works in the school office, said Crutchfield was a well-behaved student and went about his school work with little notice.
"He lived out what he wanted to do and that is to be a Marine," LaNasa said.
Faculty members remembered Crutchfield as a top student in the computer design program, an office assistant and participant in the prom fashion show.
After his long hospitalization, an infection broke out a week before he died. "He said it felt like he was getting hit by lightning," Holt said.
When Crutchfield's body was laid out Tuesday in the Sacrificial Missionary Baptist Church, his white military dress hat was tugged down close to his eyes to conceal the skull flap that had been kept open to relieve swelling in his brain.
Marines provided an honor guard at his funeral service and carried the casket to his grave at the Western Reserve National Cemetery near Akron.
He was buried there on the same day as a Vietnam veteran, two veterans from World War II and three from Korea.
"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God" -Thomas Jefferson
"The tree of freedom must be nurtured from time to time with the blood of its patriots" -Thomas Jefferson
"When the Government Fears the People, There is Liberty; When the People Fear the Government, There is Tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 4745 | Location: Reggio di Calabria, Italy / New York United States | Registered: July 12, 2007
What is our world coming to when you die over 8 bucks? 8 fricken bucks! This is a reason I believe in capital punishment, these jokers deserve the same slow death. RIP Mr. Crutchfield.
"Pick it, clip it, light it, smoke it and enjoy it"
Posts: 334 | Location: Central Florida | Registered: March 09, 2007
i will show them pain like they never knew existed. they would gladly welcome passing thru the gates of hell instead of one more moment in my company.
and i bet these 2 were wearing diamond earrings and hundred dollar sneakers when they did it.
pitiful examples of human beings and a sad statement on how the youth of today are ruining the future for our children.
i say gas them
no injection. no chair.
let them suffer. they lost all their basic human rights when they decided to act inhumanely.
*********************** there are only 2 kinds of people that understand Marines. the Marines themselves, and the enemy... everyone else has a second hand opinion.
Posts: 355 | Location: in a cloud of smoke, RI | Registered: February 21, 2008
Very sad, indeed. I say that the people who commited this crime should be put in a room with the men from his unit. Justice would be served. This man was willing to give his life so that others here could be free and his reward was to die on the very streets he most likely left to escape. Just goes to show one thing, today's youth need not go to Iraq to die, they die on the streets everyday. It would serve Barack Obama well to realize that.
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." Ronald Reagan
I say a quick two weeks of boot camp and then right to the front line. Let them get a taste of what this unfortunate man was fighting for so that they have at least a chance at regaining some measure of repsect. After that, a public hanging. If they make it.
These scumbags will get theirs in prison, I'm sure. I don't know what the point was with this comment: "and i bet these 2 were wearing diamond earrings and hundred dollar sneakers when they did it." What were you REALLY trying to say about these scumbags? That they were rich? Or had good/bad taste in clothing?
i will show them pain like they never knew existed. they would gladly welcome passing thru the gates of hell instead of one more moment in my company.
These bastages should get 30 beatings a day for the rest of their lives. Slow painful ones when internal bleeding begins give them transfusions to keep them alive so you can beat them some more. I am just wondering how they got the drop on him. The only thing i can think of is he was more concerned about his girlfriends safety than taking the chance. He probably never dreamed they would shot him. He might have done better if he fought them off who knows i guess his time was up. In any event he was a Brother a Marine like many of us my heart goes out to his family. R.I.P
"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God" -Thomas Jefferson
"The tree of freedom must be nurtured from time to time with the blood of its patriots" -Thomas Jefferson
"When the Government Fears the People, There is Liberty; When the People Fear the Government, There is Tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 4745 | Location: Reggio di Calabria, Italy / New York United States | Registered: July 12, 2007
the comment referred to the fact that there are people who dont have a cent in the world, dig through garbage cans to eat, and sleep in dumpsters covered in trash to stay warm... yet these people do not stoop to this level.
these 2 were im sure not in this situation. im simply speculationg here, but id be willing to wager that same 8 dollars that these 2 punks probably were wearing expensive clothes and jewelry and this was more a "look what a gangsta i am" move than an act of survival or a need desperate enough that you would place an 8 dollar price tag on a life.
in my eyes, theirs just went on clearance.
take one and get the other free.
*********************** there are only 2 kinds of people that understand Marines. the Marines themselves, and the enemy... everyone else has a second hand opinion.
Posts: 355 | Location: in a cloud of smoke, RI | Registered: February 21, 2008
60 miles north of me...This is the first i am hearing of this....So Sad for $8 to take a mans life...Fry these FU<KERS..i'll turn off all my electric the day they fry....even tho Ohio got rid of ol'sparky..but you get my drift...
Posts: 1406 | Location: THE BUCKEYE STATE | Registered: June 24, 2007
"They took it, turned his pockets inside out, took what he had and told him since he was a Marine and didn't have any money he didn't deserve to live. They put the gun to his neck and shot him," Holt told The Associated Press.
That was the worst part about it. This is F'ed up. They should be sent to Iraq and left there.
"Both the little cowards who are being charged with the killing, Ean Farrow, 19, and Thomas Ray III, 20, both of Cleveland, should be shot in the neck and left to die in their own right."
"Semper Fi and Rest in Peace, Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, you were an honorable man among those who do not deserve the sacrifices you have made on their behalf."
These comments where made by the slaughtered Marines aunt. I think she hit the nail on the head.Now lets see what the pencil pushers do about it.
"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God" -Thomas Jefferson
"The tree of freedom must be nurtured from time to time with the blood of its patriots" -Thomas Jefferson
"When the Government Fears the People, There is Liberty; When the People Fear the Government, There is Tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 4745 | Location: Reggio di Calabria, Italy / New York United States | Registered: July 12, 2007
