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WARREN – The violent shooting death of a Warren mother known to volunteer weekly at a Warren Family Mission food giveaway is gaining national media attention, according to the woman’s sister and an official with the mission.
A memorial service will be 1 p.m. today at the Warren Family Mission, funded by donations raised in memory of Jessica Crowder, 36, who was gunned down June 24 by her boyfriend, Roleigh Culver, 27, of Warren. Culver fled the scene and then turned the gun on himself. The Trumbull County coroner ruled the deaths a murder-suicide.
The deaths punctuated what police reports indicate was an ongoing abusive relationship.
ABC’s “Nightline” has been in contact with Dominic Mararri, public relations director at the Warren Family Mission, and with Crowder’s sister, Heather Cross. They said “Nightline” is expected to come to Warren this week to conduct interviews for a segment on guns and domestic violence.
”We want to tell Jessica’s story so it can help others. She was a good-hearted person taken away too soon,” Cross said.
Cross said her family wanted to wait until after today’s funeral before speaking to “Nightline” about ongoing abuse that she says her sister faced for several years.
Police and court records indicate Culver had a history of domestic abuse and other violence dating back at least to 2008. Police say Culver shot Crowder multiple times inside her home at 1336 Hamilton St. SW after the two argued over food she obtained from the mission. Crowder’s 11-year-old daughter was on the phone with Trumbull County 911 to report a domestic argument between the two when she heard the gunshots and told dispatchers “he shot her,” according to police and a 911 call report.
Culver later was found with a single gunshot wound to the head at 414 Austin Ave. SW. He died at the hospital a short time later.
According to Trumbull County Sheriff Department records, Culver had been booked into the jail following a domestic violence incident in August 2009. A month later, he pleaded no contest to a domestic violence charge, court records show.
In May 2010, he was booked at the Trumbull County Jail on charges of domestic violence and aggravated menacing. Culver was booked into the jail on March 29, 2011, on charges of aggravated menacing, domestic violence and driving under suspension.
In July 2013, Culver, who was then 24, was arrested on a domestic violence charge in connection with an assault of another woman. He pleaded no contest to the charges.
On Sept. 29, 2015, Culver was arrested on a domestic violence charge in connection with an assault on Crowder, who told police that her ex-boyfriend, Culver, sideswiped her vehicle on Summit Avenue, forcing her to go into a yard.
She hid behind a telephone pole while he turned around and drove away, the report states.
Crowder said prior to forcing her off the road with his vehicle, Culver told her “she would be a dead (expletive),” and that he would make her life miserable because he was jealous.
Crowder and Culver dated for about three years and lived together for just over a year. At the time of Friday’s incident, they had been separated for about a week, police said.
Mararri said he spoke with a representative from ABC in New York about “Nightline,” which has expressed interest in meeting with Crowder’s family and those who knew her for a planned news segment regarding last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the a federal law that bars people with misdemeanor domestic violence convictions from owning guns.
In the ruling handed down June 27, justices rejected arguments that the law covers only intentional or knowing acts of abuse and not those committed recklessly – where a person is aware of the risk that an act will cause injury, but not certain it will. As examples, the court mentioned throwing a plate in the heat of an argument, or slamming a door.
The case involved two Maine men who said their guilty pleas for hitting their partners should not disqualify them from gun ownership.
Writing for herself and five other justices, Justice Elena Kagan said that Congress enacted the gun law some 20 years ago to close a loophole and “prohibit domestic abusers convicted under run-of-the-mill misdemeanor assault and battery laws from possessing guns.”
She said that if the law were read to exclude misdemeanors in which a person acted recklessly, it would “substantially undermine the provision’s design.”
Gun-rights groups had argued that Stephen Voisine and William Armstrong III should not lose their constitutional right to bear arms, while advocates for victims of domestic abuse pushed to preserve the restriction.
The Warren Family Mission also is planning to remember Crowder by naming the weekly food giveaway event after her. Crowder volunteered weekly at the Friday morning produce giveaway, helping to hand out items to those in need.
”We are planning to name the produce giveaway The Warren Family Mission-Jessica Crowder Memorial Produce Giveaway,” Mararri said.
“She helped sort the clothes at the mission and also sort and hand out the food items. She always helped whenever we needed it. Everyone said it was a joy to have her here.”
Today’s memorial service will be held at the Warren Family Mission, 155 Tod Ave. NW, with Mararri officiating.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the Staton-Borowski Funeral Home.
Marrari said donations have been collected to help with the funeral, as well as help the family, which includes two children – one 11 and the other 15. He said one of the children has autism.
Cross said she and her family thank everyone who made donations and has helped the family through the difficult time.
Cross, meanwhile, said their family is no stranger to tragedy.
Lena Cross, Heather Cross’ relative through marriage, was stabbed to death Sept. 13, 2005, in her Girard home, and the house was set on fire.
Lena Cross’ young sons, Mason Cross and Christian Pizzulo, had been sleeping upstairs, and they perished in the fire.
The murders have never been solved.