BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — A 12-member Morgan County jury will resume deliberations in a high-profile murder trial Tuesday morning in Berkeley Springs.
The panel hearing the case against Andy McCauley Jr. deliberated for approximately three-and-a-half hours Monday before deciding to go home for the evening.
Closing arguments wrapped up before noon Monday after jurors heard a week of grim testimony involving the 2019 death of Riley Crossman.
McCauley is accused of killing Crossman, 15, of Berkeley Springs, in May 2019. Her body was found over an embankment in Berkeley County. Crossman was the daughter of McCauley’s girlfriend.
Several students from Berkeley Springs High School stood outside the courthouse Monday awaiting a verdict in the case. Hailee Lewis, a senior, said they want justice for Riley.
“Riley had the biggest heart. She was a beautiful young lady,” Lewis said. “She would do anything in the world for anybody else and we’re just here doing it back for her.”
During Monday morning’s closing arguments, Morgan County Assistant Prosecutor Dan James told the jury the evidence presented makes it clear that McCauley killed Crossman in the early morning hours of May 8, 2019.
“He murdered Riley Crossman and then he took, what he says, his daughter, loaded her into trash bags, drove down to Tuscarora Pike and disposed of his daughter like a piece of trash,” James said.
McCauley is charged with first-degree murder, concealment of a body, and death of a child by a custodian by child abuse.
James highlighted the final text message conversation Crossman had with her boyfriend, identified as H.L. in court documents. Crossman wrote, “Andy’s in my room…Sh. Don’t say anything about it. He can hear everything.”
She went on to text, “I’m scared.”
“Babe.”
“This is a voice from behind the grave. This is all you need,” James told the jury, referring to those text messages.
James then questioned why a 41 year old man, at the time, would be in the bedroom of a 15 year old girl in the middle of the night.
“He comes up behind her, forces that head into the pillow. Why is her underwear ripped? You want to talk about premeditation? Just pause there for five seconds. It takes minutes for someone’s face in a pillow to result in death,” he explained.
McCauley’s defense attorney Daniel Kirkland argued that prosecutors failed to identify a cause of death.
“Not only does the state not have motive, they don’t have a cause of Riley Crossman’s death, so any speculation that Mr. McCauley used that pillow to suffocate Riley Crossman is just speculation. They don’t know how she died and it’s unfortunate,” Kirkland said during his closing arguments.
Testimony from the state Medical Examiner’s Office last week revealed Crossman’s cause of death could not be determined due to decomposition. Her legs, arms and other parts of her body were covered in dry wall. That same dry wall was spotted in McCauley’s green pick-up truck.
Kirkland also pointed to DNA evidence that shows McCauley and Crossman’s blood never mixed together.
“We see blood in the toilet. We see blood on the bathroom sink. We see blood on the master bedroom wall: the bedroom belonging solely to Andy and Chantel (his girlfriend), belonging solely to Andy McCauley. There’s no mixture of Riley Crossman’s DNA or blood within that,” he said.
McCauley and Crossman also had no animosity towards each other, Kirkland said.
“There’s been no evidence that they argue or there are disputes, but somehow Mr. James would like you to make this giant leap based upon the evidence he’s presented regarding May 8, 2019 to believe that Andy McCauley entered that room with the intent to sexually assault Riley Crossman; and somehow, when that went bad, he murdered her,” he said.
During his rebuttal argument, James told jurors to use common sense when considering the facts of the case.
“Was a 15 year old girl who is full of life, who is only concerned with her boyfriend, lying about that?” he asked. “Or did someone who is evil that has a wicked design and plan go into that girl’s room and take her life away? That’s what happened, folks.”
Standing outside the courthouse, Lewis said it’s been a difficult two years since Crossman’s death.
“It put a deep break in all of our hearts. We now have to graduate without one of our classmates who we grew up with,” Lewis said.