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Jay and the Americans coming to Sherman Theater

Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble’s ‘One Slight Hitch’brings us a wedding day where everything that can go wrong, does

WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Holly Ann Crawford told her daughters she shot Ronald &#8220;Barney&#8221; Evans and his adult son in the head, according to testimony.Alexa Balma said Wednesday she followed the admission with a question.&#8220;Do you have any remorse?&#8221; she said.&#8220;It was just like shooting a deer,&#8221; Crawford allegedly responded.Testimony from Balma and Crawford&#8217;s mother Moya Linde occupied much of the second day of testimony in Crawford&#8217;s double-homicide trial. The defendant&#8217;s elder daughter Tristin Crawford, 23, also took the stand briefly.Linde and Balma recalled for jurors in Luzerne County the violence and substance abuse that invaded their home when James Edward Roche moved onto Linde&#8217;s property soon after he and Crawford started dating.The Sweet Valley couple is accused in the April 21, 2014, shooting deaths of 73-year-old Evans and his son Jeffrey Evans, 43.Crawford, 40, and Roche, 33, both are charged with two counts each of criminal homicide and criminal conspiracy to commit criminal homicide. Roche is scheduled to be tried separately in November.Both Linde and Balma testified the couple drank constantly, frequently mixing alcohol with Klonopin &#8212; a medication used to treat anxiety and seizures for which Crawford had a prescription &#8212; and smoking marijuana when they could get it.Linde and Balma agreed Crawford seemingly had been drunk &#8220;24/7&#8221; in the six months leading up to her arrest on homicide charges.According to Linde&#8217;s testimony, the ever-intoxicated Roche made threats against Ronald Evans &#8220;practically daily,&#8221; but she and Crawford could usually pacify him.She said Roche and Crawford would argue often about Evans and his prior intimate, sexual relationship with Crawford.According to Balma, her mother frequently started the arguments, bringing up Evans to get a rise out of Roche.&#8220;Sometimes he kept on all day about it,&#8221; Linde said.The arguments became physical with some regularity, the women testified, leading on many occasions to Roche hitting or choking Crawford.Cracked ribs Crawford sustained in one such episode required an emergency room visit, Linde said. Another incident she recalled ended with a laceration to Crawford&#8217;s face for which she did not seek medical care, even though Linde said she should have.Yet another incident involved Roche attacking Linde, shoving her into a piece of drywall and then into an aluminum ladder, Linde said.Despite the violence, Balma said her mother never seemed scared or intimidated by Roche. And to Linde and Balma, his frequent threats and comments about Evans were nothing to be taken seriously.But on April 22, 2014, the threats stopped.Concerned for the Evans&#8217;s safety, Linde and Balma drove past the Hunlock Township home the men shared, only to make a U-turn and continue on their way when they didn&#8217;t notice any activity, the women testified.Balma said her grandmother advised her not to get out of the car at Evans&#8217; home and not to get involved.The night before, Crawford and Roche argued about the elder Evans while drinking and watching the movie &#8220;Boondock Saints.&#8221; During the argument, Linde said, Roche announced he was &#8220;going to kill that son of a bitch.&#8221;Balma, who was upstairs in her room, said she then heard Crawford suggest they kill Jeffrey Evans as well because he put down his cat.Linde said Crawford made efforts to delay Roche or stop him from going, but ultimately the couple left the Sweet Valley residence, Roche armed with a rifle slung over his shoulder.&#8220;Alexa and I had been wondering, &#8216;Did he finally do it?&#8217;&#8221; Linde said.On April 23, Linde called state police to report Crawford and Roche had stolen both her car and credit card and were headed for Philadelphia, Linde said, and at her granddaughter&#8217;s urging she asked police to check on Ronald and Jeffrey Evans at their home.Police responding to the house would find the men shot dead, the elder Evans in the doorway on his back porch and the younger Evans face down in a hallway.According to testimony from state Trooper James Shubzda, investigators located four spent .22-caliber shell casings outside the residence. Two were found near live rounds in the driveway, and two more were located on the porch in close proximity to the body of Ronald Evans.Inside the home, police found five more shell casings in the area of Jeffrey Evans&#8217;s body, Shubzda testified.Troopers also discovered a trigger mechanism on the deck, Shubzda said, and in a later search of Linde&#8217;s residence would find a broken, but still-loaded .22 caliber rifle atop a refrigerator. The weapon&#8217;s stock had been broken off and the trigger mechanism was missing. Other weapons also were removed from the home.Shubzda said blood spatter in the rail of the sliding door near where the elder Evans was found indicated he had been face-down in the location before someone rolled him a short distance away. His glasses also were located just inside the door.Trajectory analysis of the four gunshot wounds to Jeffrey Evans&#8217;s lower back revealed he was shot at an angle suggesting he may have been prone or attempting to crawl away at the time, Shubzda said.The trooper described a fifth gunshot wound to the back of the man&#8217;s head, just behind his ear, as a close-range &#8220;contact wound.&#8221; Trajectory analysis indicated his assailant likely was standing over him.Shubzda is expected to return to the witness stand this morning.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Holly Crawford is escorted to a Luzerne County courtroom. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL091515crawford4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Holly Crawford is escorted to a Luzerne County courtroom. </caption0><photoCredit0>Clark Van Orden | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By James O&#8217;Malleyjomalley@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach James O&#8217;Malley at 570-991-6390 or on Twitter @TL_omalley.</shirttailMeta></div>

Defendant Holly Crawford’s mother, daughters testify at double-homicide trial in Luzerne County