Capital murder case continued

By Amanda Stewart

Published: April 24, 2008

A Woodbridge man charged with two counts of capital murder for the January 2002 shooting deaths of two Dumfries men made a brief appearance in Prince William Circuit Court this morning.

Jamel Saleks Crawford, 28, is charged with two counts of capital murder, two counts of robbery, four counts of use or display of a firearm in commission of a felony and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon for the Jan. 2, 2002 deaths of Robert Morrison and Romanno Head who were shot to death in their Dumfries area apartment.

Crawford was scheduled to enter a plea to those charges in Prince William Circuit Court this morning. Instead prosecutors and defense attorneys filed a joint motion to continue the case.

Circuit Court Judge Richard B. Potter agreed to continue the case until November, when a trial date will be set.

Crawford’s codefendant, 24-year-old Joshua Wayne Andrews was convicted in July of 20 felony charges, including four counts of capital murder, and is awaiting sentencing. The jury recommended the death penalty.

Prosecutors have said that Crawford and Andrews killed the two men as part of a violent crime spree in late 2001 and early 2002 that stretched from Stafford to New York.

Andrews and Crawford are also accused of shooting a store clerk who survived, in Stafford County in January 2002 before fleeing to New York where police said they shot two men during another attempted robbery.

They were extradited from New York in 2006 to stand trial in Virginia.