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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Ronald &#8220;Barney&#8221; Evans lay lifeless on his back and Jeffrey Evans lay face down in a hallway, one sandal on, the other halfway off, his arms contorted from falling.</p><p>That&#8217;s how the father and son murder victims appeared to jurors Tuesday in photographs accompanying state police Cpl. Charles Molecavage&#8217;s testimony in Luzerne County Court.</p><p>He was the first prosecution witness called in the double-homicide trial of Holly Ann Crawford.</p><p>The photographs, Molecavage said, depict just how he and another trooper found the men on April 23, 2014, at the Hunlock Township home they shared.</p><p>The troopers were responding to a call from Crawford&#8217;s mother, Moya Linde, who said she believed Crawford and her boyfriend were on their way to kill the father and son.</p><p>Crawford, 40, of Sweet Valley, faces two open counts of criminal homicide and two counts of criminal conspiracy to commit criminal homicide in their deaths.</p><p>She is accused along with James Edward Roche of entering into and carrying out a plot to kill 73-year-old Ronald Evans and his 43-year-old son on April 21.</p><p>Jurors Tuesday also heard a recorded statement in which Crawford can be heard telling state police investigators she and Roche went to the Evans&#8217;s home where Roche shot them.</p><p>Prosecutors allege Crawford was attempting to lure Ronald Evans to the door.</p><p>Roche, 33, also of Sweet Valley, faces an identical set of charges. He is set to be tried separately in November.</p><p>Attorneys in their opening statements agreed, Crawford&#8217;s prior &#8220;intimate&#8221; relationship with Evans was a point of contention between her and Roche, her on-again, off-again boyfriend of some two years.</p><p>But mostly, the attorneys painted for jurors a pair of contrasting portraits.</p><p>Assistant District Attorney Mamie Phillips described Crawford as a liar, an avid drinker and an active participant in a booze-soaked plot to kill a man whose affection she abused.</p><p>&#8220;From the beginning to the end, Holly Crawford and her boyfriend were in it together,&#8221; she said.</p><p>When Roche flew into a rage and announced he was going to kill the elder Evans, Crawford suggested they also kill Evans&#8217;s son to get back at him for having his cat put down, Phillips said.</p><p>According to the prosecutor, Crawford told a cellmate at least three different versions of the events of April 21. In one alleged version, Roche did all the shooting, seeing a long-planned murder plot to completion. In another, Crawford and Roche both pulled the trigger.</p><p>A third minimizes Crawford&#8217;s role.</p><p>Also while in prison, Crawford allegedly wrote her mother letters asking for advice on testimony, asking what to say about her gun and about differing degrees of guilt.</p><p>Phillips said Crawford in the end advised her mother to dispose of the letters, suggesting she flush them down the toilet.</p><p>&#8220;This is Holly Crawford&#8217;s story of love and of hate and of murder,&#8221; Phillips said. &#8220;Double murder.&#8221;</p><p>Defense attorney Jonathan Blum in his statements drew a battered woman with a rough history who &#8220;went with the flow&#8221; to placate her abusive boyfriend.</p><p>&#8220;The fact that she had a checkered past, the fact that she used heroin, maybe she had two boyfriends, that doesn&#8217;t make someone guilty of the crimes as charged,&#8221; Blum said.</p><p>He described the prior relationship between his client and Evans as a &#8220;dependency,&#8221; in which Evans provided Crawford with food, money and drugs in exchange for favors and odd jobs.</p><p>The pair spent a good deal of time together, Blum said, and a sexual relationship developed.</p><p>But when Crawford met Roche, the two moved in together almost immediately, he said. Evans remained a constant topic of argument, and eventually the arguments turned physical.</p><p>Roche abused Crawford regularly, Blum said, and occasionally assaulted her mother as well.</p><p>Desperate to avoid another beating, Blum said Crawford went along with Roche&#8217;s irate statements.</p><p>So on April 21, 2014, his client did go to the back door of 71 Sunset Lake Road to talk to Ronald Evans, Blum said. And when Roche shot the man, Crawford was hit with blood spatter.</p><p>&#8220;If she expected a murder, would she have put herself in the line of fire?&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Deputies on Monday escort Crawford in the Luzerne County Courthouse. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL091515crawford2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Deputies on Monday escort Crawford in the Luzerne County Courthouse. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By James O&#8217;Malley</p><p>jomalley@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach James O&#8217;Malley at 570-991-6390 or on Twitter @TL_omalley.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Graphic photos lead off testimony at Luzerne County double-homicide trial