Calvin Crew Murder Case: Trial, Sentence, and Appeal

The Calvin Crew murder case ended on May 5, 2025, when a Pittsburgh-area man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 13 to 26 years, for the February 2022 shooting of Uber driver Christina Spicuzza. An Allegheny County jury had convicted Crew of first-degree murder and five related felonies on February 10, 2025, three years to the day after the killing.¹

What Happened the Night of the Killing

On the evening of February 10, 2022, Crew’s then-girlfriend, Tanaya Mullen, ordered an Uber from a residence on Brinton Road in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania, with a destination in Penn Hills.² Spicuzza, a 38-year-old mother of four, picked up Crew around 9:15 p.m. in her Nissan Sentra. A rear-facing dashcam inside the car recorded what followed.

About 18 minutes into the ride, the footage shows Crew sliding to the center of the back seat, pulling a handgun, and pressing it against the base of Spicuzza’s skull.³ The audio captured her pleading, “I have four kids. What are you doing?” Crew answered, “I have a family too. Now drive.”⁴ Investigators later determined Crew forced Spicuzza to drive for roughly an hour while he tried to move money out of her banking apps to Mullen’s phone. She was killed by a single gunshot fired from behind.

In the final seconds of the recording, Crew took Spicuzza’s phone and yanked the dashcam off the dashboard, then discarded it from the vehicle. Her body was found nine days later, on February 19, by an Amazon delivery driver in a wooded area about 40 feet from a road in Monroeville, east of Pittsburgh.⁴ Her car was found about two miles away in Pitcairn.

How Police Identified Crew

Detectives traced the ride through Uber’s records to Mullen’s account, which pointed to Crew.² During a recanvass of the Penn Hills area where the trip had ended, officers recovered the dashcam Crew had thrown away, and the footage on it became the centerpiece of the case.

Crew, then 22, was arrested on February 17, 2022, and denied bond. He had recently been in custody on an unrelated gun charge filed by Northern Regional police, but had been arraigned and released before the killing.² Investigators found no prior connection between Crew and Spicuzza.

The Trial

Allegheny County prosecutors originally sought the death penalty. On January 2, 2025, four days before jury selection, District Attorney Stephen Zappala’s office withdrew that request.⁵ Spicuzza’s mother later said the family had asked prosecutors not to pursue it, citing her daughter’s religious beliefs.⁶

Prosecutors introduced 422 exhibits, which Zappala described as “an objective trail of digital and video evidence.” The dashcam footage was central, along with Crew’s fingerprint from the scene, a bullet casing, cell phone GPS records, Uber trip data, and license plate reader information tracking Spicuzza’s car.¹ Mullen also testified. The trial was held before Judge Edward J. Borkowski.⁷

The Allegheny County Public Defender’s Office argued that racial and political bias had tainted the investigation and prosecution. Zappala rejected the claim, calling the defense strategy “despicable and unprofessional.”⁸

The Verdict

On February 10, 2025, the jury convicted Crew on all counts:¹

First-degree murder
Kidnapping to facilitate a felony
Robbery with infliction of serious bodily injury
Theft of a motor vehicle
Carrying a firearm without a license
Tampering with evidence

Zappala called the killing “a brutal, senseless execution of a mother of four children simply trying to earn a living.”⁹

The Sentence

Crew was sentenced on May 5, 2025, at the Allegheny County Courthouse. He refused to attend the hearing.¹⁰ Judge Borkowski imposed the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder in Pennsylvania, life without parole, and added a consecutive 13 to 26 years on the remaining counts. The defense had asked for the robbery and kidnapping sentences to run concurrently, and the judge denied that request.¹¹ Through the judge, Crew said he maintained his innocence and intended to appeal.¹²

Several members of Spicuzza’s family spoke. Her mother, Cindy Spicuzza, told the absent defendant, “You executed her. No mercy, no remorse. It was abhorrent. It was murder,” adding, “You should have the death penalty, but we showed mercy.”⁶ Spicuzza’s fiancé, Brandon Marto, called Crew “a coward who couldn’t be here today to face this.”¹⁰ In a letter read aloud by the assistant district attorney, Spicuzza’s sister Chantelle wrote, “We didn’t lose my sister. You took her from us.” Deborah Marto, Brandon’s mother, told the court that Spicuzza’s youngest child barely remembers her, and that photographs are now “proof that they had a mother.”¹²

Post-Trial Motion and Appeal

After his conviction, Crew filed a motion for a new trial. His attorneys alleged political and racial bias by the District Attorney’s Office and by lead detective Greg Renko, citing social media posts they characterized as racially insensitive, including a 2020 post the defense linked to the Black Lives Matter movement. The motion also argued that Zappala used the case for political messaging and violated a judicial gag order with a post-verdict press release.¹³ Prosecutors responded that Judge Borkowski had already ruled the social media posts inadmissible during trial, so they were not new evidence.

Background on Calvin Crew

Crew was 22 at the time of the murder and 26 at sentencing. He is from Pitcairn, a small borough east of Pittsburgh. During the sentencing phase, his defense presented background: his father died by suicide when Crew was three, he was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and placed in special education classes, and his IQ was documented at 79, which falls in the range classified as borderline intellectually impaired.¹¹

Who Christina Spicuzza Was

Christina Spicuzza was 38 and the mother of four children: Andrea, Drew, Scotty, and Tori.¹⁴ She was engaged to Brandon Marto and drove for Uber to bring in extra money for her family.⁶

1
Allegheny County District Attorney. DA Zappala Announces Guilty Verdict of Calvin Crew in Murder of Christina Spicuzza
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CBS News Pittsburgh. Christi Spicuzza Calvin Crew Uber Driver Death Arrest Allegheny County Police News Conference
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6abc. Dashcam Video Uber Driver Murdered Allegheny County Pennsylvania Calvin Crew
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NBC News. Pennsylvania Man Charged Killing Uber Driver Who Begged for Her Life
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TribLIVE. DA Withdraws Death Penalty in Slaying of Uber Driver Days Before Jury Selection
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CBS News Pittsburgh. Calvin Crew Sentenced Killing Uber Driver Christina Spicuzza
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TribLIVE. Expert Testimony Shows Bullet That Killed Uber Driver Came From Behind
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TribLIVE. Jury Finds Pitcairn Man Guilty of First-Degree Murder in Slaying of Uber Driver
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WTAE. Pennsylvania Uber Driver Killing Trial Deliberations
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People. Man Sentenced Life in Prison Murder Uber Driver
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TribLIVE. Pitcairn Man Who Killed Uber Driver Mother of 4 Sentenced to Life in Prison
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Christina Spicuzza Uber Driver Murder Sentencing
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Uber Driver Christina Spicuzza Homicide Trial
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Miami Herald. Man Convicted Killing Uber Driver