Victim describes carjacking ordeal

A North Philadelphia real estate agent Tuesday identified a paroled robber as one of two men who carjacked her and then took turns sexually assaulting her during a nightmarish ride that ended in a crash that killed a mother and three of her children.

The 45-year-old woman said Cornelius Crawford, 24, forced his way into the front passenger seat of her white 2005 Toyota 4Runner on July 25 at Sixth and Cumberland Streets after she had shown a house.

Testifying at Crawford's preliminary hearing before Municipal Court Judge Patrick F. Dugan, the woman said Crawford distracted her by tapping on her front passenger window.

Before she could react, the woman said, Crawford's alleged accomplice, Jonathan Rosa, 19, was in the seat behind her, with Crawford up front.

The woman - The Inquirer does not name sexual assault victims - testified that Crawford showed what she believed was a gun, threatened her, and ordered her to climb into the backseat with Rosa.

For the next 20 minutes, the witness continued, they took turns, one driving the SUV erratically and at high speed while the other forced her to perform oral sex.

The ride ended at Allegheny and Germantown Avenues where the SUV blew a tire, jumped the curb, and plowed into the mother and children selling fruit on the sidewalk.

Keisha Williams, 34, was mortally injured and died Aug. 7; 15-year-old Keiearra Williams, 10-year-old Thomas Reed, and 7-year-old Terrance Moore died at the scene.

Dugan ordered Crawford held for trial on multiple counts of second-degree murder, sexual assault and related charges. Rosa waived his right to a preliminary hearing on Aug. 13.

Relatives of those killed seethed in the gallery of the high-security courtroom behind a wall of bulletproof glass, mocking and swearing at questions posed by defense attorney C.P. Mirarchi III.

After the hearing, Terrance Moore, father of the youngest victim, told reporters, "The only justice will be to see him get the death penalty."

Second-degree murder - a killing done during the commission of another serious crime - is not punishable by death. Conviction carries a mandatory life term without parole.

Assistant District Attorney Brendan O'Malley gingerly guided the woman through testimony that was at time graphically brutal.

In addition to her identification of Crawford and Rosa, O'Malley said investigators found a fingerprint belonging to Crawford on the passenger-side door handle of the SUV and his DNA in a bloodstained T-shirt a witness said she saw him remove after the crash.

In questioning the woman, Mirarchi stressed that she had not told police about the alleged sexual assaults in her first interview in her room at Temple University Hospital.

The woman - hospitalized for four days with a broken rib, and collarbone and facial bruises - said that her mother and a coworker were in the room with her and she was embarrassed: "I just kept it to myself."

In a second interview - without family or friends present - the woman said she learned about the deaths and that the men were at large, and decided to tell all.

Mirarchi said afterward that Crawford denies sexually assaulting the woman and did not intend to kill the mother and her children. He called the crash a "tragic accident."