Jury convicts Ahkil Crumpton in attempted robbery at Racetrac that ended in fatal shooting

A federal jury on Wednesday convicted former University of Georgia football player Ahkil Nasir Crumpton for the attempted robbery of a Racetrac gas station in Watkinsville that ended with the death of a clerk.

Middle District Court Judge Tilman Self in U.S. District Court in Athens delayed sentencing for at least four months while a presentencing investigation is conducted.

Crumpton, 24, of Philadelphia, faces up to 30 years in prison.

However, he also faces a murder charge in Oconee County Superior Court for the slaying of Elijah Wood, 23, who was working on the nightshift on March 19, 2021, when he was shot to death during the attempted robbery. Federal law prohibited prosecutors from charging Crumpton with murder in federal court, due to the homicide occurring during an attempted robbery.

The case went to the jury of seven men and five women at about 11 a.m. and at 12:25 p.m. a knock on the door revealed a verdict had been reached.

Oconee County Sheriff James Hale, whose office worked with federal officers and numerous others in the case, said he was pleased with the verdict.

“They gave us the verdict we expected, but we still have the state case to do,” he said.

Hale also spoke to some of Crumpton’s family members and members of Wood’s family before they left the courthouse.

Besides the attempted robbery charge, Crumpton was also found guilty of a federal gun violation in which he was accused of willingly assisting a man in the purchase of the Glock 19 that was used in the crime.

The case was unusual in that prosecutors were allowed to use evidence in two homicides in their effort to identify the robber in the Racetrac case.

The verdict followed closing arguments by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Morrison and defense lawyer Chauntilia Adaway, who is with the Federal Defenders of the Middle District.

Crumpton, who played wide receiver at UGA in the 2017-18 seasons, did not testify, but under questioning by officers in March 2022 he denied being the man who killed Wood.

Adaway keyed on discrepancies she found in evidence such as the gloves, boots and pants worn by the perpetrator and those items seized at Crumpton’s arrest in Philadelphia. She also noted the numerous conflicting estimates of Crumpton’s height.

But she also sought to discredit the testimony by Juwan Taylor, who was Crumpton’s roommate at Athens Ridge Apartments.

Taylor testified that Crumpton had confessed to the Racetrac killing. She asked the jury to listen to an April 27, 2022, interview in which Taylor narrated his memory of the shooting. She urged the jury to listen to who was talking the most, saying it was Taylor’s attorney Ed Tolley, and that it was Tolley directing the interview Taylor gave to law enforcement.

She also noted that law enforcement had coaxed the story by telling Taylor they didn’t believe he was involved, but he had a lot to lose.

Morrison countered with what he described as the “overwhelming evidence.”

The cell phone evidence that placed Crumpton in the location of the robbery attempt was “enough to convict,” he said.

Morrison keyed heavily on the Glock 19 owned by Crumpton, noting that not only was it used to kill Wood, but Crumpton used it to kill a man in July 2021 in Philadelphia. That death was ruled justifiable homicide.

More: Former Georgia football player testifies he knew who killed Oconee Racetrac clerk

The bullet removed from Wood and a shell casing left at the station were shown ballistically to be fired from Crumpton’s gun and the 13 shell casings recovered outside the Philadelphia homicide scene also matched Crumpton’s gun, according to Morrison.

The prosecutor was critical of the defense putting suspicion on Taylor as a possible suspect, saying they were “accusing an innocent man of a heinous crime.”

As Morrison reached the conclusion of his argument, he showed a photo of Wood that was taken that fateful night while he was facetiming with his girlfriend.

“He’s frozen in fear,” Morrison said about the photo, which apparently shows Wood looking at the robber.

“The defendant pointed it at his chest and the gun goes off,” the prosecutor said.

Also shown to the jury was photo of Google data taken the year after the killing in March 2022.

Crumpton had googled for some information. In the search bar, Crumpton wrote: “Elijah Wood Racetrac shooting.”

More: Evidence closed in federal trial for Racetrac robbery suspect

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Suspect in Oconee Racetrac robbery convicted in U.S. District Court