Marine Lance Corporal Robert Crutchfield killed for $8.00

Ohio Marine succumbs to injuries
Was shot, robbed of $8 at bus stop in early January
Ohio Marine succumbs to injuries
Was shot, robbed of $8 at bus stop in early January
The casket of Marine Lance Corporal Robert Crutchfield was carried out of Sacrificial Missionary Baptist Church after his funeral service in Cleveland last week. (Jamie-Andrea Yanak/Associated Press)
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Thomas J. Sheeran
Associated Press / June 2, 2008
CLEVELAND - On leave from the violence he had survived in the war in Iraq, a young Marine was so wary of crime on the streets of his own hometown that he carried only $8 to avoid becoming a robbery target.

Despite his caution, Lance Corporal Robert Crutchfield, 21, was shot in the neck at close range during a robbery at a bus stop. Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 4 1/2 months, until he died of an infection on May 18.

Two men have been charged in the attack, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said the case was under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

"It is an awful story," said Alberta Holt, the young Marine's aunt and his legal guardian when he was a teenager determined to flee a troubled Cleveland school for safer surroundings in the suburbs.

Crutchfield was attacked on Jan. 5 while he and his girlfriend were waiting for a bus. He had heeded the warnings of commanders that a Marine on leave might be seen as a prime robbery target with a pocketful of money, so he only carried $8, his military ID card, and a bank card.
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