Police: Defendant’s vehicle was at scene of fatal Finleyville shooting
The suspected vehicle allegedly used in the fatal 2022 shooting outside Bob’s Tavern in Finleyville sped to and from the scene, reaching nearly 100 miles per hour on roads in the Mon Valley, according to data extracted from the SUV.
State police Trooper Jason Morgan testified during the third day of the homicide trial for Keaundre Crews that someone driving his SUV was traveling 88 miles per hour at one point on Route 481 as it went to Crews’ Grange Road residence in Fallowfield Township before idling in the driveway for four minutes and then speeding off to Finleyville.
That vehicle arrived at Bob’s Tavern at 1:02 a.m on Oct. 10, 2022, and sat parked there with the engine off until the driver started the ignition at 1:09 a.m., the exact same time that Jaisen Irwin was shot dead while sitting in a friend’s car after leaving the bar. Morgan testified the white SUV belonging to Crews then left the area and was recorded driving 90 miles per hour at one point before the GPS tracking quit recording, likely due to a malfunction.
Crews is accused of shooting and killing Irwin, 29, of Monessen, in the tavern’s parking lot after an altercation earlier in the night at Jim’s Bar in Monongahela. Following the shooting, Irwin’s friend whom he was with at the time, Maurissa Spencer, drove from the shooting scene but stopped shortly after and either pushed or pulled Irwin’s body out of the car and left it by the side of the road.
Defense attorney Kenneth Haber questioned Morgan on why the location tracking information from the SUV’s infotainment center stopped working, and asked whether the “data or garbage” was incorrectly collected during the other trips that night.
“There’s a gap,” Haber said.
He also noted that there was a “bulletin” sent out to owners of the 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs like the one Crews owned informing them in May 2021 that they needed to update the infotainment center due to possible glitches with the navigation and inaccurate GPS locations. Morgan testified that he was unaware of that update bulletin, but could not say whether there were any issues with the system in the SUV that Crews owned.
Morgan testified that information extracted from the SUV’s onboard computer showed when the driver’s and passenger-side door opened, although he said it does not have information for the rear doors. Haber then asked Morgan whether the system can detect who is driving the vehicle, how many people are inside and where they’re sitting, all of which is not available in the data extraction.
“The data doesn’t tell us, perhaps, who is driving the vehicle?” Haber asked.
“No,” Morgan responded.
Crews, 32, is charged with homicide, conspiracy, prohibited possession of a firearm and carrying a firearm without a license.
Testimony in the trial before Judge John DiSalle is expected to continue this morning at the Washington County Courthouse. It was not known if the defense would present any witnesses or if the jury could begin deliberations today.