By JOE LAMBE
The Kansas City Star
Natasha Crump died at age 20, strangled in a locked bedroom of an Olathe apartment four years ago.
The father of her child admitted he slept there on a couch that night. Scratches were on him, and his DNA was under Crump’s fingernails and on her body.
Even the defense lawyer said at trial Thursday that it looked like Jose Solis, 27, did it, but he also told jurors that was not enough to convict. Another jury two years ago could not reach a verdict.
This one deliberated two hours Thursday before finding Solis guilty of first-degree murder.
Crump died in the late evening of Dec. 22, 2006, or the early morning of Dec. 23, 2006. She had broken up with Solis and moved to Ottawa, Kan. But she worked at a restaurant in Olathe, so she and their 20-month old daughter stayed with Solis that evening and night.
Solis told police that he and Crump had consensual sex and then Crump became angry when she thought he got a phone call from another woman. She scratched him, but he left to cool off and later returned and slept on the couch, he said. He opened the locked bedroom door the next morning, found her dead and called 911, he told police.
Assistant prosecutor Chris McMullin told jurors, “The idea that someone other than Jose Solis committed this crime is preposterous.”
Solis likely came home drunk and found a Christmas card from Crump’s new boyfriend and attacked her, McMullin said.
“Look at these pictures — he’s got scratch marks all over his body.”
He strangled her for at least six minutes to kill, McMullin said, making the crime premeditated first-degree murder.
Defense lawyer Zane Todd said there was no planning involved.
“If you’re going to kill someone, you get a weapon,” he said, “and you don’t do it in your own bedroom.”
Solis and Crump each had been seeing others and jealousy would not have been a motive, he said.
Johnson County District Judge Peter Ruddick will sentence Solis later.
My name is Jeana Ledom all I have to say is Natasha Crump was my little sister.I think of her everyday.She was a beautiful daughter wonderful sister and a loving mother. Our girls are 6 mo apart. He came back to the house and slept on the couch, he opened the bedroom door to check on her and she was dead. Not many people know that there 20 mo. girl was left in that same room for over 6 hours with her dead mother.He killed her because she was leaving him she had just got her an apartment in Ottawa Ks. not 2 weeks before he strangled her with her baby girl there. She was never violent, angry, or mean. I hope this man never get out. He took a beautiful mother from the world. Why should we even let this man live? I love you Natasha and hope I get to see you again one day in heaven...
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