North Union man pleads guilty to 3rd degree murder in 2013 stabbing
A North Union Township man pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and burglary in Fayette County Court on Wednesday, admitting to stabbing his former girlfriend to death in her home in 2013.
Henry Clay Crawford, 59, will spend 25 to 50 years behind bars for breaking into 49-year-old Lisa Tupta’s North Union Township home and fatally stabbing her in the neck and torso on Jan. 28, 2013.
“She locked me out,” Crawford told the court, so he broke the door in. “We got in an altercation, she got stabbed.”
According to court records, state police responded to Holiday Mobile Home Park after a neighbor called to report something suspicious at Tupta’s trailer. When they arrived, they found Tupta bleeding in her living room. Crawford was found hiding in a closet, holding a knife and covered in blood.
Tupta was taken to Uniontown Hospital, where she died.
Crawford told President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. he was in Pershing Court drinking beer and smoking crack that day, and that he became angry when Tupta called him.
She was upset that he was not out looking for a job, like he said he would, Crawford told the court. That’s when he said he decided to go to her house.
“How did she know you were drinking instead of looking for a job?” Wagner asked.
“Intuition, I guess,” Crawford replied.
Crawford testified he parked his car a couple of streets away from Tupta’s home, hoping she wouldn’t see him and lock her door, then spent about a half hour walking around her residence before he knocked.
“Had she excluded you from that home?” Wagner asked.
“No, she was just upset that day,” Crawford replied.
He said he had been living with her until shortly before the murder. After further inquiry, the court determined Crawford was, in fact, excluded from the home by the authority of a protection-from-abuse order.
According to Crawford, the storm door was locked. When he knocked, Tupta briefly opened the main door and shut it again.
“All I was thinking about was entering the property,” he said.
Once inside, Crawford said they started arguing. “We had a verbal dispute about where I was at the time. I was supposed to be looking for a job,” he said.
“Somehow I ended up stabbing her with a knife.”
He admitted he was still under the influence of crack at the time.
District Attorney Rich Bower read the autopsy report to the court, which included a stab wound that pierced Tupta’s liver, another stab wound to the chest that penetrated her aorta, and defensive wounds on her hand.
Prosecutors were initially seeking the death penalty against Crawford, arguing the killing was committed in the course of another felony, namely burglary. The commonwealth also argued the use of torture, and Crawford’s significant history of violent crimes elevated it to a capital case.
Bower told the court he had spoken with Tupta’s mother, stepfather and two sisters on Friday about the plea negotiations. “They were all in agreement with the offer,” said Bower.
Crawford will come before Wagner for sentencing Monday at 9 a.m.