Saltonstall Street arsonist loses appeal

Daily Messenger (Canandaigua, NY)

Feb. 14--A Canandaigua man who was part of a three-person conspiracy to set fire to a vacant Saltonstall Street house to collect the insurance money will remain in prison.

The convictions of Samuel Crawford, 37, formerly of 2110 Route 21, were unanimously upheld Friday by state Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department.

Crawford; his wife, Shallamar Hayward-Crawford, 33; and William Bradley Jr., 26; were each convicted of arson, attempted insurance fraud and conspiracy in connection with a plot to burn down a vacant rental property at 41 Saltonstall St., owned by Hayward-Crawford, that the couple was having trouble leasing because of code violations, according to court records.

The Dec. 22, 2013 fire destroyed the house and damaged two adjacent houses.

Bradley had been promised $1,000 to torch the structure and was driven to the house by Hayward-Crawford, who waited for him on another street to take him back to her house where she and her husband had planned the crimes with him for about two hours.

Crawford was found guilty in mid-July 2014 of third-degree arson, attempted fifth-degree insurance fraud, fifth-degree conspiracy and two counts of fourth-degree arson. The trial was in Ontario County Court before Judge Frederick G. Reed, who sentenced Crawford to 7 1/2 to 15 years in state prison.

Crawford was represented on appeal by Canandaigua attorney Marc Davison, who argued before the Appellate panel on Dec. 4 that Crawford's confession was coerced because he was concerned about his wife, said he did it and he did not want her to get into any trouble, but she had already been arrested and charged.

Davison also argued Crawford was deprived of an opportunity to present a defense and that the court let the prosecutor make the case all about Crawford's parole status.

At the time of the fire, Crawford was on parole in connection with a 2007 conviction of second-degree burglary and fourth-degree grand larceny.

Davison said Bradley had testified Hayward-Crawford drove him to the scene and that was enough to explain why Mr. Crawford did not go, rather than getting into "this inflammatory aspect of his parole status."

He also objected to Reed sentencing Crawford to the maximum sentenced based on being married to his wife.

"I was outraged when I was reading the sentencing minutes," Davis argued before the panel. "The judge told him three times over that he should have divorced his wife, he should have been the man, he should have stood up. And that even though he couldn't give Mrs. Crawford the sentence he could give Sam, he was going to give Sam the maximum sentence. I think it's a pretty egregious due process violation to sentence somebody to the maximum just because he's married to someone else."

Davison declined to comment on the decision, but said he would request a review by the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals.

"Obviously we were very pleased that the Appellate Division upheld the conviction of Mr. Crawford, as we felt confident he received a fair trial and was convicted on the weight of the substantial evidence against him," said Zachary Maurer, Ontario County assistant district attorney who argued the appeal, saying statements made about Crawford's parole status at trial were relatively minor when looking at the entirety of the case and harmless error in explaining his lack of participation in setting the actual fire.

"As for reading the minutes at the sentencing, the judge clearly took some issue with the relationship between these two and the fact that they had conspired to commit this crime together," he says. "I don't believe it should be read as punishing the defendant for who he happened to be married to. He [Reed] was, I think, making his point that he, the defendant, Mr. Crawford, knew what he had to lose by engaging in this sort of conduct, and if his wife came up with this sort of idea while he's on parole and he understands exactly what he would be facing, that he needed to do the right thing and if that meant going so far as to divorce his wife, then that was the right thing, as opposed to engaging in a conspiracy to commit this arson."

The Appellate Division found no merit in Crawford's contention he was denied due process by the imposition of the maximum sentence.

Instead, the five justices found Crawford's statements of admission to investigators were not coerced and that the evidence against him, including a videotaped confession, was overwhelming.

Hayward-Crawford had been found guilty by a jury in mid-August 2014 and was sentenced to 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years in state prison for conviction of third-degree arson, two counts of fourth-degree arson and single counts of attempted second-degree insurance fraud and fifth-degree conspiracy, but her conviction was reversed on appeal last June.

The Appellate Division found she was a denied a fair trial, saying the prosecution asked several improper questions during the trial including asking potential jurors if Hayward-Crawford "look[ed] like an arsonist" because she was dressed in red clothing; about inappropriately questioned her about her inability to make bail, indicating she was incarcerated; and the conviction of her co-defendant husband on the same charges.

The higher court sent the case back down to Ontario County Court for a re-trial, but Maurer, who did not handle that trial or appeal, said Hayward-Crawford pleaded guilty on July 10 to third-degree arson in exchange for a sentence of 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years in prison and two counts of fourth-degree arson for a concurrent term of 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison. She was also ordered to pay $7,500 in restitution.

Having spent nearly four years in prison at that point, she was released to parole on Aug. 3 and remains under supervision.

Bradley pleaded guilty in mid-2014 to three counts of arson and one count each of attempted second-degree insurance fraud and fifth-degree conspiracy in exchange for cooperating against Crawford and a sentence of one to three years in prison. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $2,574.13. Bradley was released last August after serving the full term.

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