Judge weighing 2 sentencing options in arson murder of restaurateur

SALT LAKE CITY — A potentially three-day sentencing hearing began Monday as a judge considers which life prison sentence to impose on a man who murdered his estranged husband in a fire.

Craig Crawford, 48, pleaded guilty in June to aggravated murder and aggravated arson, first-degree felonies, in the death of prominent restaurateur John Williams.

As part of Crawford's plea deal, the death penalty was taken off the table.

Now 3rd District Judge James Blanch is hearing testimony to help him determine whether Crawford should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, or 25 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

In light of the volume of material to be considered and the gravity of his decision, Blanch said Monday that he won't announce the sentence as the hearings conclude this week, but will take the issue under advisement and announce it on Sept. 21.

In the early morning hours of May 22, 2016, Crawford intentionally set fire to the Capitol Hill house he had shared with Williams, 72, who had filed for divorce earlier in the month.

Crawford started the fire in the foyer on the second floor of the four-story house at 574 N. East Capitol St., police said. The blaze rendered the stairway to the upper levels unusable, trapping Williams in the fourth level bedroom where firefighters found him dead on the floor.

An autopsy determined Williams died of smoke inhalation.

Williams was the president of Gastronomy, which operates the popular Market Street Grill, Market Street Oyster Bar and the New Yorker restaurants. He founded the Downtown Alliance and championed the local arts, Salt Lake City's Olympic bid and other community organizations.

Taking the witness stand for the defense, clinical psychiatrist Mark Cunningham said he believes Crawford was psychotic when he killed Williams.

Cunningham pointed to Crawford's family history and a collection of medical records through the years, which he noted were separate from any litigation or criminal allegations, which the psychiatrist said showed years of risk factors and experiences that culminated in mental illness.

According to Cunningham, Crawford, the youngest of three sons, comes from a family with a history of mood disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and substance abuse.

As an adult, he suffered a bad fall skiing, which the psychiatrist said inflicted a traumatic brain injury that went undiagnosed at the time and went on to exacerbate Crawford's mood disorder. Meanwhile, morphine treatments proved the underpinning for his eventual drug use.

Gary Stimac, a renowned radiologist, testified that the approximately 20 lesions visible on a scan of Crawford's brain are "entirely typical" of traumatic brain injury that would have occurred about the time of the ski accident.

Questioned by prosecutors, Stimac said very few of those lesions would likely be due to Crawford's drug use.

After the fall, Cunningham said Crawford declined, slipping from his highly productive and lucrative sales job and eventually falling into methamphetamine abuse that he told doctors made his brain "(feel) normal."

"This is the most well-documented history of psychosis that I've seen in my career," Cunningham said.

But psychologist Sam Goldstein, testifying for the state, said based on his evaluations he believes Crawford's heavy and prolonged drug use, combined with his narcissistic, histrionic and antisocial personality traits, were more responsible for Crawford's actions than his brain injury.

"It appears the behaviors we observed going forward from that (ski accident) had more to do with his substance abuse and his personality style than anything else," Goldstein said.

Related:

Estranged husband admits murdering prominent restaurateur in arson fire

The estranged husband of restaurateur John Williams pleaded guilty Tuesday to trapping the prominent Salt Lake man in his home and setting it ablaze, killing him.

If a brain injury occurred, Goldstein said, he believes it was mild and Crawford would have recovered from it in time.

Goldstein noted that, following the accident, Crawford spent a year using pain killers to manage a serious injury to his leg from the fall. During that year, Goldstein said Crawford told him he felt perpetually "foggy," and his attempts to work during and after that year were unsuccessful. After that, he turned to heavy drug use, Goldstein emphasized.

In the weeks leading up to the fire, Cunningham described a series of witness and police reports where Crawford was seen acting bizarrely and threateningly, saying he was plagued by demons or unseen beings, and destroying property in Williams' properties in Vancouver, Canada; San Francisco; and Salt Lake City.

"This is all part of the pattern of what happens as the psychosis escalates, wherever he lives," Cunningham said.

Nearly three weeks before Williams died, he sought a restraining order claiming Crawford was becoming dangerous, though his request was later denied, according to court documents obtained by KSL. A search warrant affidavit said a frightened Williams installed cameras and changed locks and alarms on the home "to keep Craig Crawford out of the house."

Goldstein, however, asserted Crawford's actions as he set Williams' house ablaze were deliberate, aware and planned. He also opined that, had Crawford killed Williams as he acted out his psychosis, he would have relayed that belief to police and first responders rather than trying to hide his involvement.

Asked whether he believed a brain abnormality led Crawford to murder Williams, Goldstein replied simply, "No."

But as evidence of Crawford's state of mind following his arrest, Cunningham pointed to video of Crawford alone in a police interrogation room following his arrest. The recording, which was shown in court, showed Crawford experiencing what Cunningham called psychotic stimuli as he muttered to himself, spoke to individuals who weren't there, and reached out repeatedly to swat away, grab or push off some unseen thing.

The behavior continued during an interview weeks later, Cunningham said, explaining that Crawford would often stop talking mid-answer to stop, cock his head as if to listen to something, and then continue speaking. Crawford told Cunningham he was hearing three or four voices in his head almost constantly during his waking hours.

The hearing will continue Tuesday morning.

Free and confidential help and support for victims and survivors of domestic violence is available 24/7 at 1-800-897-LINK (5465) or visiting udvc.org.

Related topics