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Witnesses speak up in murder trial

Ryan Collingwood Staff Writer | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 years AGO
by Ryan Collingwood Staff Writer
| January 18, 2017 12:00 AM

COEUR d'ALENE — Acquaintances of Heather L. Crawford were among the witnesses who took the stand Tuesday, the fifth day of the 28-year-old woman’s murder trial.

The prosecution alleges Crawford suffocated 22-month Ezra Wilson, the daughter of ex-boyfriend Hiram Wilson, in their Kingston home the night of Aug. 22, 2014. Crawford, who posted bond in January 2015, is charged with first-degree murder.

Travis Quimby, a Silver Valley man who worked as a logger like Wilson and was related to him through marriage, faced extensive questioning by prosecution and the defense.

In the weeks leading up to Ezra's death, Quimby sent a Facebook message to Crawford wishing ill will on Wilson, who is the son of former Pinehurst Police Chief Rocky Wilson.

Wilson was convicted of two counts of accessory to murder in 2009 in connection to the Dobson Pass double homicide, where a young Silver Valley couple was shot, killed and dumped off the side of a mountain before a group of young men — including Wilson — took the dead couple's car to Boise.

Quimby said when he saw Facebook pictures of a smiling Wilson, it triggered him. Quimby was once married to Wilson's aunt.

"I didn't think it was fair to see him happy like that," said Quimby, who knows the Dobson Pass victims' families. "...He got a pretty good deal out of that situation. It wasn't fair, and a lot of people feel the same way."

When Wilson took the stand last week, he noted Quimby said in his message he hopes Wilson’s daughter gets the same thing the murdered couple got.

Quimby noted his contempt for Wilson's father, Rocky, but said "I can't say I didn't get along with (Hiram), I didn't really know him." Quimby said he didn't harbor any animosity toward Ezra and didn't know where Wilson and Crawford lived when they were together.

Crawford's defense attorney, Anne Taylor, has questioned why Wilson was never a suspect in Ezra's death, given his past, and why Quimby wasn't adequately interrogated by investigators, referencing a time when he was interviewed in a Denny's parking lot.

Investigators searched Quimby's Facebook account, which showed the social media conversation Quimby had with Crawford and also a response to Quimby from Rocky Wilson.

The Facebook conversations were displayed on a courtroom projector for the jury to read.

In cross-examination of Quimby, Taylor pointed to a previous conversation in an unrelated situation where Quimby wanted to hire a person to break someone's leg.

Heidi Barnes and Ben Skinner, who had previously worked with Crawford at SVL Analytical in Kellogg, also testified for the prosecution.

In interviews with investigators, Barnes said Crawford would ask her if she ever was jealous of her stepchildren. Barnes said Crawford, who has three children of her own, mentioned being jealous when Wilson would sleep in bed with Ezra.

After Ezra's death, Barnes said Crawford expressed a desire to have children with Hiram.

"Did this seem odd to you after was Ezra was dead?" Prosecutor Keisha Oxendine asked Barnes.

"Yes," Barnes replied.

Barnes also said she ended her friendship with Crawford because "her stories kept changing" after Ezra's death.

Skinner, who wasn't interviewed until September 2016, had a Facebook conversation with Crawford the evening Ezra died. He said the two discussed various things, including family and hobbies. Their entire conversation was printed out and passed among the jury.

On the night of Ezra's death, Crawford claims she woke up to a cold breeze and open doors before noticing the baby wasn't in her playpen. When she walked into the bathroom, she saw the words "murder scumbag daughter" written on the mirror before waking Wilson. Together, the pair searched the house before they found the child in a small bed, unresponsive.

Wilson broke up with Crawford in the weeks following Ezra's death. Court records say Wilson said Crawford was a consistently medicated alcohol user who thought Ezra was possessed. Wilson also noted Crawford took thyroid and anxiety medication and drank alcohol the day of Ezra's death and had a history of writing cryptic messages on the mirror.

The trial resumes today at 9 a.m.

Because Shoshone County couldn't establish an impartial jury, the trial is being held in Kootenai County with Coeur d'Alene-area jurors.

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