Clayton Shanklin Murders Michael Crumpton

Clayton Shanklin was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for the murder of Michael Crumpton

According to court documents Clayton Shanklin and his brother Kevin Crumpton would force their way into a home where they would murder Michael Crumpton before robbing the home

Clayton Shanklin would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

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Clayton Shanklin Case

The evidence introduced at trial established the following: On October 11, 2009, Shanklin sent Tracy Ward, his girlfriend, a text message telling her that he wanted to “meet up” and smoke marijuana. Ward then drove to Parrish, to pick up Shanklin at his grandmother’s house; she arrived at approximately 9:00 p.m. Ward and Shanklin then drove to Shanklin’s mother’s house and, thereafter, drove to the Warrior River Apartments in Cordova, because Ward was going to purchase marijuana from her long-time friend, Michael. Ward telephoned Michael and told him that she would be coming by his apartment to purchase marijuana. According to Ward, Shanklin had never been to Michael’s apartment and he stayed in the vehicle when she went into Michael’s apartment to purchase the marijuana.

When Ward entered Michael’s apartment, she saw Michael, Ashley, Michael’s mother, Lori Crumpton, and Michael’s uncle, Lonnie Beard. Ward and Michael went into the master bedroom where Ward paid Michael $25 for one gram of marijuana. According to Ward, when Michael gave her the marijuana she observed more marijuana “in individual sacks” and also observed “a stack of cash.” According to Ashley, when Ward and Michael returned from the master bedroom, Ward said, “ ‘Y’all have a lot of money.” ’ (R. 590.) Ward then left Michael’s apartment and returned to her vehicle.

Ward and Shanklin left the apartment complex and, according to Ward, Shanklin asked her whom she had seen in the apartment, how much marijuana she had seen in the apartment, and what kind of marijuana she had seen in the apartment. Ward told Shanklin that she had seen “only a few sacks” of marijuana but that it was “hydro,” which, she said, means “a very high grade of marijuana.” Ward told Shanklin that she had seen “a stack of money in there also.” Ward and Shanklin returned to Parrish, where they went to an abandoned house and smoked the marijuana. Thereafter, Ward told Shanklin that she was going to go home; Shanklin, however, told Ward that he wanted to go to Jasper to pick up his cousin Kevin Shanklin (“Kevin”). Ward stated that she suspected that Shanklin and Kevin were going to rob Michael because Shanklin had mentioned “earlier that he wanted to go in there,” presumably talking about Michael’s apartment.

Ward then drove Shanklin to Kevin’s house. Shanklin went inside Kevin’s house where he remained for approximately 20 minutes; thereafter, both Shanklin and Kevin came out of Kevin’s house and got into Ward’s vehicle. Shanklin then told Ward that they wanted to go to “Jeremiah’s” apartment—Jeremiah, like Michael, lived at the Warrior River Apartments. Ward then drove Shanklin and Kevin to the Warrior River Apartments and let them out in front of Jeremiah’s apartment sometime “before midnight.” According to Ward, Shanklin sent her approximately 100 text messages between 11:49 p.m. and 2:40 a.m. Although Ward stated that she knew what was going to happen, she did nothing to stop it.1

According to Ashley, after Ward left the apartment, the family continued to watch television. Around midnight Ashley decided to go to sleep in the master bedroom; Michael and Lonnie, however, stayed awake. At that time, Michael and Ashley’s two-years-old and eight-months-old children were asleep in the bedroom they shared, which was adjacent to the master bedroom. Around 1:30 a.m., Ashley awoke and went outside to smoke a cigarette, and Michael joined her—Lonnie had already left the apartment. Michael and Ashley then went back inside the apartment, checked to make sure the doors were secured, and went to sleep in the master bedroom.

Thereafter, Ashley was awakened by voices, and she attempted to wake Michael but she noticed someone in the room. Ashley then lay back down because, she said, she “was going for [her] gun,” which was normally kept under her pillow; her gun, however, was not there. Ashley then sat up in the bed, and the individual next to the bed pulled out a gun, which she described as a silver, revolver-type gun, and said, “ ‘Bitch, don’t move.” ’ Ashley also saw a second individual at the foot of the bed. According to Ashley, the individual with the gun was wearing a ski mask and the individual at the foot of the bed was wearing a bandana, which, she said, covered only the bridge of his nose and his mouth. Ashley screamed at them to get out of the apartment.

At that time, the individual wearing the ski mask fired the gun, hitting her in the upper thigh. The individual wearing the ski mask then gave the gun to the individual wearing the bandana, who then “put[ ] the gun in [her] face and pull[ed] the trigger three times”; the gun, however, misfired, and he passed the gun back to the individual wearing the ski mask. While the gun was in her face, Ashley noticed that the individual wearing the bandana had “[l]ight skin ․ [and] a scar on the right side of his face.” (R. 609.) After the individual wearing the bandana handed the gun back to the individual wearing the ski mask, Ashley began fighting the individual wearing the bandana, and Michael awoke and began yelling at the two individuals.

According to Ashley, the two individuals also had in their possession “big and bulky looking” rocks, which, she said, appeared to be from the nearby railroad tracks. As Ashley was fighting the individual wearing the bandana, he struck her twice in the chest with the rock. Ashley, however, was able to “get the rock from his hand and start striking him with it.” (R. 611.) Then the individual wearing the ski mask struck Michael on the head with a rock and the individual wearing the bandana escaped from Ashley and ran “back down the hallway.” (R. 611.) Ashley then turned to help Michael fight the individual wearing the ski mask. According to Ashley, while Michael was facing the wall, the individual wearing the ski mask “had the gun pointed at Michael’s back ․ [and] [h]e pull[ed] the trigger and sho[t] him four times in the back.” (R. 612.) Michael grabbed his back in pain, and the individual wearing the ski mask attempted to run out of the master bedroom. Ashley, however, grabbed him, trapped his head in the bedroom door, and “was hitting him with the door and his head against the wall.” (R. 613.) Ashley then turned on the bedroom lights and, because the ski mask had come off during the struggle, Ashley saw the side of his face. While Ashley had the individual with the ski mask pinned in the doorway, Michael got up from the bedroom floor with a gun in his hand and told Ashley “to get out.” At that point Ashley let go of the individual with the ski mask. According to Ashley, the individual with the ski mask ran down the hallway into the living room where the individual with the bandana was waiting, and the two left the apartment.

Ashley then went to Michael and they both walked down the hallway. Ashley then looked into her children’s room and noticed that her children were both awake and in the eight-month-old’s crib; Ashley explained that she did not know how the two-year-old ended up in the crib. Then, according to Ashley, the following occurred:

“[W]e both walked to the sofa, the loveseat, and he has his gun in his hand and I asked him just to put it down and he drops the gun on the couch. And I asked him if he was okay, and he looked at me and asked me if I were okay and he said no. And I told him I was fine, I had just been shot in the leg. I went to try to open the front door and my hands were shaking so bad I couldn’t open it so he opened it for me. And I told him I was going to call an ambulance so I ran back down the hallway to get our phone that usually sits on the computer stand.

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“[Michael] looked pale. He couldn’t breathe and he was just hurting.”

(R. 617–18.) Ashley could not find her telephone and told Michael that she was going to Karen Nicholson’s apartment to telephone an ambulance. On the way to Nicholson’s apartment, Ashley saw her upstairs neighbor, Steven Madison, and told him what had happened to Michael. Madison went to Michael’s apartment to tend to Michael, and Ashley went to Nicholson’s apartment to telephone an ambulance. When Ashley arrived at Nicholson’s apartment, which, Nicholson stated, was around 3:00 a.m., Nicholson would not let Ashley leave because Nicholson “was afraid that [the intruders] were still on the grounds.” Nicholson then telephoned 911.2

According to Madison, when he entered Michael’s apartment he saw Michael “slumped over the arm of the couch and [he saw Michael’s] oldest daughter standing in the hallway.” (R. 1393.) Madison moved Michael from the couch to the floor in front of the apartment door. Madison stated that Michael looked like “he was trying to hang on.” (R. 1395.) Madison told Michael “to try to hang on and somebody was going to call 911.” (R. 1396.) While Madison was tending to Michael, Madison’s wife came downstairs and took Michael’s children from the apartment. Shortly thereafter, Michael died, which Madison described as “[j]ust a gasp, you know, it was his last breath leaving.” (R. 1399.) Madison then attempted to perform C.P.R. on Michael, but was unsuccessful. According to Madison, Michael appeared to be focused and maintained eye contact with Madison until he died.

According to Ashley,

“[a]s [she] was sitting there on the couch, [she] could hear [Madison] talking to Michael and said, ‘Come on, man. I’ll take you over there.’ And they were trying ․ to get out of the apartment. And they never made it out of the apartment.”

(R. 621.) Shortly after 3:00 a.m., paramedics and law enforcement arrived at the apartment.

Josh Bankston, a paramedic with Regional Paramedic Services in Jasper, responded to the 911 call. Bankston assessed Michael and determined that Michael showed no signs of life. Bankston stated that Michael was “apneic and pulseless,” and Michael was declared dead on the scene. After the paramedics treated Ashley, she was taken by way of ambulance to the hospital. Keith Concord, the head investigator for the Cordova Police Department, went with Ashley to the hospital. Ashley was treated and released from the hospital the same day. When she was released from the hospital, Ashley went directly to the courthouse to speak with Investigator John Softley and Investigator Frank Cole. Ashley described to Investigator Cole and Investigator Softley the two men who had shot her and Michael. Specifically, Ashley told them:

“[T]hey were two black males, both wearing masks, dark clothing, anywhere from 5′11″ to maybe 6 feet tall.

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“I told them they were small in size.

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“․ I told them that the guy at the foot of the bed had a scar on the right side of his face, kind of, I told them they both kind of had big ears.”

(R. 625.)

Shortly after 3:00 a.m., Shanklin sent Ward a text message asking her to come pick him up. Although Ward initially declined to do so, she eventually agreed. Ward stated that Shanklin told her to pick him up on River Road, which, she said, was “[b]y the asphalt plant by the railroad tracks.” (R. 721.) According to Ward, when she arrived at River Road, it was raining and Shanklin and Kevin appeared to be “[s]cared, terrified, [and] nervous” (R. 722), and Shanklin was not wearing shoes.

When Shanklin got into Ward’s car, Ward asked him what was wrong and Shanklin told her, “[w]e shot him.” (R. 725.) Shanklin told Ward to drive to Kevin’s house. When they arrived at Kevin’s house, Kevin got out of the car and then Shanklin and Ward drove to Shanklin’s grandmother’s house in Parrish. According to Ward, Shanklin told her that, if anyone asked, she was to tell them that she had not seen him.

After being dropped off at his Grandmother’s house, Shanklin spoke with his cousin, Isaiah Howze, and told him that “he messed up and killed someone” in an apartment.3 At some point, Shanklin also had a conversation with another cousin, Tyrone Dickerson, and, according to Dickerson, Shanklin told him that “some shit went wrong” and that “it was a scuffle and she wasn’t backing down. He wasn’t backing down.”4 (R. 839, 841.)

Later that morning Ward received a “MySpace instant messag[e]”5 from Shanklin. According to Ward, Shanklin asked her if she had “talked to any police.” (R. 729.) By the time Ward had received the instant message from Shanklin, she had learned that Michael had died, and she asked Shanklin if they had killed him. According to Ward, Shanklin did not respond.

Around 5:30 a.m., Shanklin sent Amber Piper, another girlfriend, text messages asking her to come pick him up, and Piper did so. According to Piper, Shanklin left his grandmother’s house “with a garbage bag of clothes, threw them in the back of the truck,” and they left. Piper stated that Shanklin appeared to be nervous and that she “knew something was wrong.” Piper asked Shanklin what was wrong, and Shanklin told her that he had shot somebody. When Piper asked if he had actually shot somebody, Shanklin told her “he was just playing.” (R. 764.) Piper stated, however, that she knew something was wrong. Piper and Shanklin then drove to Piper’s grandfather’s house in Gadsden. While at her grandfather’s house, Piper continued to ask Shanklin what was wrong, and, according to Piper, Shanklin told her that he had killed somebody, explaining:

“He said that earlier that day, the day that the shooting actually happened, the girl Tracy went into the house, unlocked the back door, that she went there to buy weed because the guy that got shot, I guess, sold weed to her. And she went in there and hung out for a little while and unlocked the back door, and later on that night him, [Shanklin], another guy and Tracy went in the house through the back door and proceeded to look around for the drugs and the money. And [Shanklin] walked up to the guy while he was asleep in the bed and put a gun to his back and said, ‘MF’er, are you ready to die.’ And the guy jumped up and started fighting for his money. [Shanklin] shot him, and [Shanklin] and all of them ran out of the house and jumped in Tracy’s parents’ car and left. And when they left [Shanklin] threw out the clothes and the gun out the window, and I assume that Tracy went home after she took them home.”

(R. 769–70.) Piper stated that, after Shanklin told her that he had shot someone, she was scared, and Shanklin told her that he would kill her and her child if she told anyone. According to Piper, Shanklin then took her cellular telephone because he did not want her to telephone anyone. Piper and Shanklin then went to Piper’s mother’s house in Albertville.

On October 14, Ashley met with Investigator Softley, Investigator Cole, and Cordova Police Department Chief of Police Kenneth Bobo at the Cordova Police Station. At that time, Ashley was given 29 photographs to look through to see if she could identify the individuals that had been in her apartment. According to Chief Bobo, Ashley

“was flipping through the stack of photographs and she immediately recognized one photograph and said, ‘Oh my God, this is one of them,’ and become very hysterical, excited. She kept on flipping through the photographs, flipped through maybe five or ten more, found another picture and said, ‘This is the other one, this is the other one,’ and she started crying. You know, we had to give her a few moments to recoup herself.”

(R. 1165–66.) Ashley identified Shanklin and Kevin. Thereafter, Investigator Cole, Investigator Softley, and Chief Bobo picked up Ward to question her and also arrested Kevin. Around 7:00 p.m., Investigator Cole and Investigator Softley were interviewing a witness, and Investigator Softley received a telephone call from Shanklin. According to Investigator Softley, he

“stepped outside of the office in another room and I answered the phone and the caller identified himself as Twan. And he asked me, he said, ‘John, I heard y’all had been looking for me.’ I said, ‘Yeah, Antwain,’ I said, ‘We have.’ I said, ‘We have a witness up here that we’ve been talking to them and we need to talk to you and where are you located.’ He said, ‘I’m in Parrish.’ He said, ‘Let me talk to Frank.” ’

(R. 1510.) Thereafter, Investigator Softley returned to the interview room and told Investigator Cole that Shanklin was on the telephone and wanted to speak with him. According to Investigator Cole, the following conversation occurred:

“I said, ‘Hello.’ He said, ‘Hey, this is Antwain.’ I said, ‘What’s up man?’ Antwain said, ‘Man, this shit bad ain’t it?’ I said, ‘Sure is.’ I said, ‘You need to come up here.’ He then stated, ‘Man, shit just went crazy.’ He said, ‘Is there anything you can do for me?’ I said, ‘Not one thing in the world, Antwain.’ I said, ‘You need to come on in here.’ And Antwain said, ‘How bad is it?’ And I said it was real bad. I then asked him if he was going to come in and when. He said, ‘I’ll be there in about two hours,’ and that he would call [Investigator Softley] when he got close to Jasper.”

(R. 1498–99.) Shanklin, however, did not turn himself in.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/al-court-of-criminal-appeals/1687570.html