TOMS RIVER — A 40-year-old Lakewood
man faced the grieving relatives of his
girlfriend Friday, refusing to accept blame
for her death even as he was about to be
sentenced to life in prison for her murder.
“Justice has failed me, and I ask that you
spare my life,” William McMillan, also
known as Khaleel Allah, said to state
Superior Court Judge James Den Uyl,
minutes before the judge handed down a
life prison term for the murder of Shakita
Crudup.
McMillan turned to the victim’s aunt, Jackie
Crudup, who has adopted Shakita Crudup’
s four children – two of whom are McMillan’
s.
“Jackie, thank you for doing what you’re
doing for my kids,’’ McMillan said. “I’m
sorry to all of you. Please take care of my
kids, please.”
Crudup’s relatives had just explained how
her murder has shattered her children, w
ho were ages 10, 5, 2 and 1,
respectively, at the time of her death.
“In one moment of anger, you brutally took
Shakita’s life away from me and her
siblings – but most of all, her four children,
who needed her very much,” said a tearful
Deborah Crudup, the victim’s mother.
McMillan was convicted in June of Crudup’s
murder. The victim had lived with him, her
children and McMillan’s teenage son in his
Claire Drive home, but testimony at the trial
indicated she was planning to leave him
shortly before she was killed.
The 26-year-old victim was fatally shot in
a bedroom in their home in what McMillan
claimed was an accident during a struggle
for a .357-Magnum. McMillan told police
afterward that an argument about another
woman preceded the shooting.
Assistant Ocean County prosecutors Bridget
Coughlin and Steven N. Cucci argued at the
trial that the shooting was no accident.
They called a blood pattern analyst to
testify that blood stains on the wall
scientifically proved McMillan stood over
Crudup and shot her. Crudup had her left
hand up to her head in a defensive move
when the bullet pierced her hand and
head, they argued.
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