Tuite's prosecutors try to redefine images of former suspects
Richard Tuite may be on trial for the murder of Stephanie Crowe, but the jurors hearing the case really haven't heard his name much in the last month.
Instead, the monikers and mugs of three other people have dominated Tuite's trial, ever since his attorneys put on evidence that the 1998 slaying of the seventh-grader came at the hands of her teenage brother and his buddies. Two of the three boys confessed to police days after the murder.
With Tuite forgotten for the time being, his prosecutors' have focused their efforts on countering the image of the three boys as murderers.
Prosecutors clearly want to show that it was high-pressure police tactics ---- and not actual guilt ---- that led to the confessions. They are also trying to show that the images painted of Stephanie's older brother as angry, brooding and obsessed with violence are misleading and false.
And to that end, the attorney general's office, which is prosecuting Tuite, is in the middle of eliciting testimony from those who came in contact with the teen in the time surrounding the murder.
And, most importantly, they are letting the jurors hear from the three boys themselves. Now young men, two of the three have already taken the stand to explain how they could have confessed to a murder they now say they never had any part of.
A case full of twists
The battle to redefine the image of the teens comes in the rebuttal phase of Tuite's trial, which is about to enter its 10th week. Prosecutors argue the slender transient, diagnosed with schizophrenia and a methamphetamine abuser, was the one who sneaked into the Crowes' Escondido home six years ago and attacked 12-year-old Stephanie, stabbing and slashing her nine times and leaving her to bleed to death in her bedroom.
Tuite's attorneys point to the confessions from the boys.
Stephanie's confused and horrified family found her body in a pool of blood on her bedroom floor Jan. 21, 1998. Within weeks, the teenagers were charged with the murder, based on the damning statements they made to police after long hours of interrogations.
The charges were dropped after a judge ruled the confessions as coerced and after little spots of Stephanie's blood was found on Tuite's clothing.
No physical evidence linking the boys to the murder has been reported.
The confessions
The confessions to the murder came from Michael Crowe and Joshua Treadway. Crowe, after nine hours of interrogation over two days, came to tell police that he could not remember killing Stephanie, but must have done so, since police told him they had evidence proving as such. (They had none; it is legal for police to lie to suspects during interrogations.)
Crowe, then 14, then went on to detail for police the reasons why he killed his sister: intense jealously and sibling rivalry.
Treadway spent a total of more than 22 hours in police custody during his two interrogations, which happened 13 days apart. By the end, under intense police pressure, Treadway told police he acted as a lookout while Crowe and buddy Aaron Houser stabbed Stephanie in her bed.
Treadway on the stand
Tuite's attorneys have already shown the jury the videotapes of the interrogation and the confessions.
Both boys, now in their 20s, have told Tuite's jury that their confessions were forced by police who had deemed the murder an inside job.
Treadway's time on the stand came last week. He appeared to be a strong witness, quite likable and quite confident of his responses.
Although Treadway at times appeared angry as he spoke of what he called "abuse" by the police who interrogated him, he didn't come across as defiant on the stand.
And Treadway, now 21, was able to offer up sure responses to questions from both sides about why he was able to put so much detail in his confession.
The bottom line, he said, was that police believed he was involved and wouldn't take no for an answer. So he gave police what they wanted.
The usually poker-faced jury appeared to take to Treadway far more than they had taken to Michael Crowe when he testified a week earlier.
Impressions from friends
Tuite's attorneys have also offered up an image of Michael Crowe as an outsider, an anti-social ninth-grader who found solace and escape in a fantasy world.
So this week, prosecutors called on some of Michael Crowe's school chums.
Amber Haney testified that she had befriended Crowe when they were both seventh-graders at Hidden Valley Middle School in Escondido.
"I just thought he was a really nice guy," the young woman said of Crowe.
"Think he was weird?" prosecutor Jim Dutton asked.
"Not at all," Haney said.
Justin Branim, who said his mother has long been friends with Michael Crowe's parents, said he and Michael Crowe "grew up together."
Branim, now 20, said he and his family was often at the Crowe home. Branim said Michael and Stephanie got along "just like any other brother and sister, really." They would sometimes get a little annoyed with each other, he said, and sometimes "fight about stupid things."
The last time he saw them, just a few weeks before Stephanie was killed, Michael and Stephanie were getting along "just fine."
Crowe's reactions to Stephanie's death
Prosecutors are also faced with countering police claims that Michael Crowe hadn't appeared to be grieving with his family on the day Stephanie was found.
So this week, prosecutors elicited testimony from the child psychologist who interviewed the boy after police removed he and his little sister Shannon from the Crowe home the day Stephanie was found.
(The Crowe children were taken to an emergency children's shelter. It's a common procedure, police have testified, to place the surviving children in protective custody while police investigate the murder.)
Haim Belzer, who said he has counseled more than 800 children, testified that Michael Crowe was quiet, withdrawn, confused and sad when he spoke to him the morning after Stephanie was found. The doctor, who spent 65 minutes with Crowe, said it appeared the teen was having difficulty accepting the death of his sister.
The symptoms, he said, were consistent with someone who had suffered a recent loss. He added that teenage boys commonly have trouble coping with such occurrences.
On cross-examination, Patton asked Belzer if Crowe's responses during the interview could have been related to his having caused Stephanie's death.
"Could be," the doctor said. "A lot of things could be."
More to come
Prosecutors still have quite a few witnesses slated to take the stand this week, including members of the Treadway and Houser families, as well as Houser himself.
And also coming: an expert in false and coerced confessions.
Defense attorneys have said they expect their rebuttal will take far less time than prosecutors, who have been at it for more than a week and have said they expect to continue until the end of the month.
Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-3517 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.
Countering images of rivalry
Members of the Crowe family were also called to the stand this past week, mostly to explain the relationship between Michael and Stephanie and to counter any images of a bitter rivalry.
Cheryl Crowe, their mother, said the two children had "normal squabbles" over who got the front seat or who got to watch their programs on TV. She said the pair generally got along well, and their relationship had been improving in the time before her murder.
Michael Crowe and Stephanie did "normal brother and sister things," she said, liking watching television and playing video games.
And Shannon Crowe, now 16 years old and the youngest of the Crowe children, said she did not believe her older siblings fought very often.