A D.C. man was sentenced to life in prison for killing a Capitol Heights man during a botched burglary.
Clarence Haggins, 36, was convicted of first-degree murder earlier this year in the fatal shooting of John Crawford, 28.
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On June 15, 2008, Crawford, his fiancé, Kristan Hayes, and her children were returning home from the movies, prosecutors said.
Crawford noticed something odd. The front door was locked, but he remembered that he had accidentally left it unlocked because he was in a hurry. When he opened the door, he and his fiancé noticed something else: Their dog gate had been moved.
Crawford told Hayes and the children to stay outside while he investigated further, prosecutors said. Crawford went inside with a gun, prosecutors said.
Hayes testified that she heard Crawford yell at someone and then saw a man in all black with a ski mask fire a handgun. Crawford was shot in the head.
Hayes ran to the porch of a neighbor’s home with her children and called 911. She saw the masked man run away and jump into the passenger side of a waiting vehicle. The intruder had a limp, police said.
Prosecutors said Crawford had shot and wounded his attacker, who had left a large amount of blood at the scene.
Later that day, D.C. police responded to a 911 call in the 4200 block of Livingston Road SE about a man who was suffering a gunshot wound to his leg. It was Haggins. He told police that someone had just shot him outside his house.
Police found a vehicle covered in blood on the passenger side. Inside, officers found a black ski mask and black gloves, police said.
Police ran DNA tests that linked Haggins to the scene of the shooting. They also obtained cell phone records that placed Haggins in Capitol Heights at the time of the shooting.
