Published: Tuesday, November 30, 2010
By KEITH PHUCAS
Times Herald Staff
COURTHOUSE — A transgender defendant accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death in August pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Montgomery County court Tuesday.
Asia Santana, 40, whose legal name is Tyrone Crawley, reportedly got into an argument inside a Moore Street house Aug. 13 with 28-year-old Eric Nevith, who Santana allegedly stabbed in an upstairs bedroom, according to court papers.
Santana appeared before Judge William J. Furber Jr. Tuesday afternoon with her defense attorney Patricia Cassidy by her side. At the opposite table were county Assistant District Attorneys Cara McMenamin and Bradford Richman, who are prosecuting the case.
The defendant is charged with first-degree and third-degree murder and possessing an instrument of crime.
On the day of the homicide, the defendant’s 30-year-old brother, Trarome Crawley, told investigators his sibling called him about 11:44 a.m. “upset and crying” and asked him and their mother to come to Norristown.
When the brother and mother arrived in town, Santana allegedly told his brother, “I think I killed Eric,” and claimed the man’s dead body was inside the residence where they had been staying, according to the criminal complaint. When Crawley and his mother went into the apartment, they discovered a body in the bedroom wrapped in a bloody sheet and comforter.
Around 2:10 p.m., the Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center received a call from Santana who reported his boyfriend unresponsive, and the caller believed he may have killed the victim with a knife.
When Norristown police arrived at on the 400 block of Moore Street, Santana was sitting on the front steps and surrendered, authorities reported.
The defendant reportedly told Norristown Detective James Angelucci and county Detective Michael Santarelli about his relationship with Nevith, and that the two had been staying at the Moore Street residence for several days. Santana and Nevith were reportedly alone inside the second floor room when the argument started.
The disagreement turned violent when Nevith struck Santana in the face, and the defendant “blacked out,” according to court papers. The next thing Santana recalled was seeing his boyfriend lying on the floor, bleeding from his mouth.
At this point, Santana claimed he realized he was holding a knife, which he placed next to the television in the room. He then placed Nevith’s body on the bed and covered him with a blanket. Nevith reportedly breathed “a single deep breath” as he was put on the bed.
Next, Santana said he took a shower because he “felt dirty.” At that time, detectives noted he had no visible injuries.
County Detectives Robert Turner and Michael Gilbert, who processed the crime scene, found Nevith’s body on the bed. He had been stabbed in the upper left arm and left upper back. There was blood on the floor and near a broken drawer pulled from a dresser. A knife lay next to a television set.
Santana is being held without bail in the maximum security section of Montgomery County Prison. Transgender inmates held at the prison are afforded protection and kept out of the general prison population for their own safety, according to a prison official.
A trial date has not yet been scheduled.
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