Posted on 07/14/2005 12:17:48 PM PDT by TheOtherOne
Faced With Debt, Georgia Man Shot Postal Worker in Apparent Bid to Go to Prison
Published: Jul 14, 2005 SNELLVILLE, Ga. (AP) - Earl Lazenby had delivered mail for years to the aging brown home with overgrown plants in the yard and a National Rifle Association sticker on the front door. The home's owner was always friendly, sometimes chatting with Lazenby at the grocery store in this Atlanta suburb.
But what Lazenby didn't know was that William Crutchfield was deep in debt and looking for a way out. Crutchfield apparently watched with envy as Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph was headed to prison for life and aspired to the same fate - allowing him to live off the government while behind bars.
So he allegedly hatched a twisted plan: Kill a federal employee.
Two weeks ago, Crutchfield walked down his driveway carrying a .380-caliber pistol and greeted his mail carrier at the curb. He then opened fire on Lazenby, drove to the police station in his Chevrolet Cavalier and told the secretary, "I just shot the letter carrier."
"He took his mail and then said, 'Hello.' And then just started shooting," Lazenby said from his hospital bed Tuesday. "He just casually got in his car and drove away."
Lazenby was shot seven times, once in the arm and six times in the abdomen. A neighbor heard shots, came outside and called 911 as the 52-year-old grandfather lay in the grass of a nearby lawn thinking he might die.
When Lazenby came out of surgery hours later, he learned that he had suffered extensive damage - 29 holes in his colon and intestines, shattered bones in his arm. He would live, but he would never be able to digest food or produce insulin by himself.
Meanwhile, Crutchfield was telling police his startling motive. It had nothing to do with Lazenby, but instead was a way out of medical debt, he reportedly said.
On TV, he followed the case of Rudolph - who pleaded guilty this spring in a deal that will send him to prison for life - and wanted the same fate.
"He was saying that he wanted to be cared for by the federal government, that he was in poor health and wanted to be taken care of," said Atlanta postal inspector Tracey Jefferson.
Crutchfield, a 60-year-old electrical contractor who lived alone, claimed $90,000 in medical debts for an unspecified ailment and feared losing his home, another postal inspector testified at his preliminary hearing.
"He felt that it was better to be in federal prison than out on the street," postal inspector Jessica Wagner said.
The Postal Inspection Service is the lead investigating agency in the case. Because the victim was a postal carrier, that agency has jurisdiction. Gwinnett County police are referring calls to postal officials.
At Crutchfield's first court appearance, he asked twice to plead guilty before even being assigned a public defender. "I'd like to get to where I'm going and start doing my time," he told the judge.
At a second appearance, his lawyer did not request bond, and Crutchfield remains in jail on a complaint of attempting to kill a federal employee. Crutchfield did not respond to an interview request on the advice of his lawyer, Suzanne Hashimi, who said, "He's already talked quite a bit already."
Lazenby's wife, Colleen Lazenby, said survivalist gear was found in Crutchfield's home and that he apparently admired Rudolph.
"He saw that Eric Rudolph was being well taken care of after committing a federal crime, so he thought he'd just go ahead and commit one, and he'd be taken care of, with three meals a day and shelter," she said.
The explanation makes no sense to the Lazenbys.
"If all he wanted to do was commit a federal crime, all he had to do was walk into a bank with an empty gun and point it at them and say, 'Give me your money.' And that's your federal crime, and no one gets hurt," Lazenby said. "Instead of trying to kill the mailman."
Lazenby, a 28-year mail carrier, went home from the hospital Wednesday, and he is not sure how long his recovery will take. The thing that attracted him to the postal job was "not being cooped up in the office," but for now doctors say he cannot return to his route.
"They're not sure if that'll ever happen," he said. "It's still gonna be a long, long road from here."
AP-ES-07-14-05 1449EDT
2. We should allow citizens to commit themselves to prison or a hospital. I know they will get a free ride, but people who cannot cope with life are more of a danger to us on the outside.
The liberals have announced their new economic get out of debt plan.
Why did he not:
A) Declare Bankrupty.
B) Rob a bank
Attempted murder seems a little rash.
"...and a National Rifle Association sticker on the front door..."
And they just HAD to throw that in, of course.
This is another reason to revisit torture penalties and how we feed and care for prisoners.
A good lesson as to why you shouldn't care a .380 for self defense. 7 shots a point blank range and the guy is still alive.
/SARC!
Two things....
1. I guess GTMO doesn't sound too bad to this guy!
2. IDEA!!! When we put horrible terrorist scum in prison = we could tell the LLL that it's for their own good. They'll eat better, get plenty of exercise and be able to rest comfortably.
BARF
desperate people do desperate things. This is tragic in so many ways.
Stealing your neighbor's mail will get you a nice Fed Prison and an automatic sentence, no murdering needed.
If they keep giving free organ transplants, etc. to prisoners, I think we'll be seeing more of this kind of behavior.
The feds should let the state have first bite at this one. A decade or so in the Georgia prison system would be more suitable than a term measured in months in the Federal prisons. (Of course, if he gets a good lawyer, it might just be a few weeks in a mental hospital.)
Negative.
As far as this Crutchfield guy and his sob story about his bills are concerned, f*** him.
He's a lunatic.
He says he wanted to go to prison because he wanted a place to stay with medical care and meals?
The local homless shelter would give him a place to stay, three meals and the local ER is legally barred from refusing him emergency medical care.
He is a sick bastard who wanted to kill someone for fun, not a hard case.
Death penalty. That will take care of his problems and society's as well.
No bias here, right.
Stories we never heard:
"The Unibomber was arrested at his home, which had a copy of Al Gore's Earth In the Balance on the shelf."
"The police and fire fighters were pelted with rocks by war protesters... who were carrying signs calling for peace."
"Florida's Democratic party, which has called for higher Social Security taxes, has not been paying them for their employees for the last two years."
I don't think bank robbery is a federal crime compared to attempted murder of a government employee on the job.
Good afternoon.
"...and a National Rifle Association sticker on the front door..."
That was the first thing I noticed. It's like the "some of whom are armed" thing they put in articles about the MMP.
Michael Frazier
Freelance Socialist.
SHEee-e-e-esh! It's usually the postal worker that does the shooting. My the times are a changin'!
Man! Of all the possible federal employees in the country, couldn't he have picked someone a lot more deserving?
Why would anyone shoot a postal worker? A lawyer, no problem, I can understand; but, a lousy postal worker? The guy should be ashamed of himself (as well as locked away for the rest of his life).
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