Inset: Whisper Dawn Mari Sellars (Facebook). Background: Del Orrin Crawford (KRTV).
A Montana man convicted of killing a woman and wounding her husband in a bar parking lot after an argument will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Del Orrin Crawford, 42, received a 100-year prison sentence on Tuesday for the murder of Whisper Dawn Mari Sellars, 28, and the attempted murder of her husband, Doug Crosswhite. Crawford was convicted in July of intentional homicide, attempted intentional homicide, assault with a weapon, and tampering with evidence. He was cleared of a separate charge of assault with a weapon.
In the Flathead County District Court, Judge Dan Wilson strongly criticized the defendant, rejecting his claim of self-defense, reprimanding him for blaming his defense lawyers for the guilty verdict, and condemning his violations of the law while on pretrial release, as reported by the Flathead Beacon.
Judge Wilson emphasized that Whisper Sellars posed no threat when she was fatally shot, with the bullet piercing her heart, ensuring her immediate death. Wilson pointed out that she was in a submissive position at the time of the incident.
“This court is not impressed by Mr. Crawford’s conduct during pretrial release,” Wilson added. “He was convicted of three counts of unlawful trapping. He was charged with not only a traffic offense but evading authorities.”
The victim’s father-in-law, Robert Crosswhite, spoke out in court.
“Del Crawford handed Whisper a death sentence,” he said. “He also intended to hand that sentence to Doug and, in doing so, he also handed a life sentence to their kids and our family of a life without Whisper.”
The bloodshed happened on Aug. 27, 2022. Deputies from the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office received several calls at 1 a.m. about a shooting at the Southfork Saloon in Martin City, near Glacier National Park.
The shooting happened after an argument over a golf cart Crawford was using to take people between a wedding rehearsal and the bar. Sellars and another woman argued with Crawford after he found them taking pictures in the golf cart he’d driven to the bar, the Hungry Horse News reported, citing court documents containing witness interviews. The argument was over the golf cart keys that Crawford thought someone had taken. After Crawford pushed Sellars, her husband pushed Crawford.
Prosecutors said Crawford fired his gun out of anger, while Crawford claimed self-defense, telling investigators, “I argued with these folks for some time. They won’t let me get on the golf cart and leave, and all they can tell me is, ‘If you don’t like what we’re doing, call the cops.””
He said he got into a fight, fell to the ground, then “I stood up, produced my handgun and shot twice.”
“I was on the ground, and they were on top of me in a public area. What more do I need to explain?” Crawford asked the detectives. “So I produce and I called law enforcement, and you guys showed up. And now they know how long it takes for the sheriff to show up.” The video of his interrogation was shown during his trial.
Robert Crosswhite said on GoFundMe that the shooting happened after a senseless verbal dispute in which a “coward of a man pushed my daughter inlaw after which my son pushed him.”
He said his son spent eight hours in surgery fighting for his life. The site raised money for the funeral and for money to care for the couple’s five children.
