Man convicted in wife’s murder wins appeal

The Court of Appeals of Virginia has overturned capital murder and other charges against Anthony Dale Crawford, a Manassas man who was convicted Feb. 9, 2007, of killing his estranged wife in 2004.

The appeals court’s opinion, which was handed down on Tuesday, reversed all of Crawford’s convictions in Charlottesville Circuit Court except grand larceny. The three-member panel also remanded for re-trial the use of a firearm in the commission of murder charge and a murder charge that is no greater than first-degree murder.

Crawford, now 49, was sentenced to two life sentences plus 67 years in May 2007 after being convicted of capital murder, abduction with intent to defile, rape, grand larceny and use a firearm in the commission of murder. Author-ities accused Crawford of killing 33-year-old Sarah Louise Craw-ford. Her body was found Nov. 22, 2004, in the Quality Inn on Emmet Street.

According to the opinion, the appeals court said the trial court should not have allowed the commonwealth’s attorney to submit an affidavit into evidence that was created as part of Sarah Crawford’s request for a protective order against her husband. The opinion states that the local court violated the Confrontation Clause, part of the Sixth Amendment that gives people the right to confront their accusers, when it allowed that piece of evidence to be submitted.

Information about whet-her the charges will be retried locally was not immediately available Thursday.

As of Thursday, Crawford was listed as an inmate at Sussex I State Prison on the Virginia Department of Corrections’s Inmate Status Information System.