Manslaughter Plea Cuts Maurice Usher Sentence to Ten Years

Nearly five years after Geoffrey Crawford vanished from Crooked Tree, one man has now learned exactly how much time he will spend behind bars, and it’s less than half of what the court first considered. In the High Court on Tuesday, Justice Derick Sylvester handed down sentence to forty-two-year-old Maurice Usher Jr., who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Crawford’s death. While the court set a starting point of twenty-two years, several factors, including his early guilty plea and time already spent on remand, cut that sentence significantly. In the end, Usher Jr. was told he has just over ten years left to serve. The case dates back to September 29, 2021, when Crawford, a resident of Crooked Tree, was reported missing along with his red Nissan Pathfinder. What initially appeared to be a disappearance quickly turned into a homicide investigation. A key break came from a neighbor, who told police he unknowingly helped two men jump-start Crawford’s vehicle. At the time, he believed they were acquaintances. But as they drove off, he noticed Crawford lying motionless with head injuries inside the vehicle and immediately alerted authorities. Usher Jr. was later arrested and initially charged with murder. However, earlier this year, he changed his plea, admitting to the lesser offense of manslaughter and asking the court for mercy. Meanwhile, the case is far from over. A second suspect, thirty-one-year-old Patrick Lloyd Young of Dangriga, was charged years after the killing and remains before the Magistrate’s Court. His case has yet to advance to the High Court for trial. For Crawford’s family, the sentencing closes one chapter, but leaves another still unresolved.

 

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