Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 14, 1994 TAG: 9407140106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He was put in foster care when he was 6.
His mother lost regular contact with him soon after.
When he was 8, a psychiatric report said he was already developing ``anti-social'' behavior.
He started drinking alcohol at age 10, and was arrested for sniffing glue.
When he was in a state juvenile reformatory a year later, correction records allege, his father tried to smuggle him marijuana.
He was 13 when another mental evaluation concluded that he had developed no sense of right and wrong. He preferred ``the fast and wild life.''
The probation report goes on and on - to his stays in mental hospitals and his time behind bars.
On Wednesday in a Roanoke County courtroom, Crockett faced sentencing on the most troubling chapter in his 25 chaotic years of life.
He stood convicted of wounding his mother in her head and robbing his stepfather at gunpoint.
Crockett's attorney argued that he needed more help. Lance Hale said Crockett wasn't legally insane, but the complex swirl of all his problems made it hard for him to make rational decisions.
Prosecutor Skip Burkart said society had done all it could for Crockett - ``and nothing has worked.'' Now, Burkart said, it was time to put him away to protect others from him.
Judge Kenneth Trabue asked Crockett if he had anything to say before he was sentenced.
``Uh ... ,'' Crockett began. He paused for three or four seconds. ``Naw.''
The judge sentenced Crockett to 45 years in prison on five charges - more than eight years longer than the maximum term suggested by the state's sentencing guidelines.
Prosecutors say Crockett showed up at his mother and stepfather's house with a gun early Jan. 24, 1993. He was angry because he believed they hadn't done enough for him, even though they'd set him up in an apartment and tried to get him a job after he had been released from prison.
``I need money,'' he said. ``I don't have any, and I need to talk to you.''
He sat both of them down in the living room and complained that they hadn't visited or written him enough while he was in prison.
``I ought to kill both of you right now,'' he said.
He put the gun to his mother's head and fired. She ducked. The bullet grazed her but did not enter her skull.
Defense attorney Hale said Crockett is sorry for what he did.
Hale said Crockett was in an alcohol haze and brought a pistol with him to his mother's because he wanted to talk to her. In his mind, ``he had to have some kind of extra clout, extra force.'' He cut the phone wires, Hale said, because he wanted to make sure his mother and stepfather would listen.
Burkart, the prosecutor, said Crockett's hard life and mental problems are no excuse.
``I think it's pretty clear that Mr. Crockett can't control himself,'' Burkart said.
``I'm controlling myself now,'' Crockett interjected from the defendant's table.
by CNB