![]() In none of them did Dement say that he saw Crawford raped or even taken into the shed. In all four versions, Dement contended that he, Justin Black, and Philip and Nathan Barnett left a party along with Crawford to go for a ride. ![]() ![]() The three statements he gave to law enforcement conflicted with each other later, his version in court changed details yet again. The state police brought Dement to the station and questioned him for nine hours, during which Dement provided three statements confessing to the murder and implicating Justin Black and brothers Philip and Nathan Barnett.ĭement’s confession never quite added up. Nearly five years after Crawford was killed, Brian Dement’s uncle, a man with a history of prior convictions, brought to the West Virginia State Police tape recordings he had secretly made of Dement telling him that he and three other men had participated in Crawford’s murder.ĭement later contended he was “strung out on drugs” during the recorded conversation, and that his uncle likely fed him information “to get out trouble himself.” is different from the other three because they have always maintained their innocence.” “I wouldn't have had any problem at all if he would have pled not guilty and gone to trial and been convicted and then you find this DNA,” Cabell County Judge Alfred Ferguson said at a hearing on May 1. The results of the DNA testing led a judge to overturn the convictions of Dement’s three associates.īut Dement has not been so lucky: Even though the physical evidence points to another man as the killer, so far the West Virginia judge has refused to grant a new trial for Dement, citing the fact that Dement confessed and entered a guilty plea. Then, last year, a surprising development occurred: DNA testing appeared to support his recantation, showing that the DNA of a convicted rapist was in semen found in the crotch of Crawford’s leopard print pants, as well as on a cigarette butt found near the shed. This story was written by Maia Rosenfeld of Injustice Watch.īut two days after he pleaded guilty in 2007, Dement recanted his confession, saying he knew nothing about the crime but made up the story to satisfy authorities.
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