“You shouldn't be getting money back from the government when you owe money to crime victims” - Andy Kahan

Barry Crawford was a Houston Firefighter. He was trained to save lives, not take them. But on April 17, 1998 Barry Bernard Crawford stepped across the line and murdered Steven Ray Hardin in cold blood, shooting him in the heart at point blank range. As Steven lay dying Crawford’s neighbors tried to save his life. But Crawford, the firefighter, never pitched in. Instead, he kept asking if his victim was dead, yet, while he continued to grip the rifle as he peered over the top of Steven Hardin’s body.

Steven Hardin was a wrecker driver for Midwest Auto Storage in Houston when he caught the call to go to Crawford’s place and tow his vehicle. Crawford had been parking his vehicle illegally on his neighbor’s property for quite some time and had received a number of warnings that the vehicle would be towed. There is no question that Crawford was quite aware that his vehicle was going to be towed. No question at all. When Hardin showed up and crawled under the vehicle to hook it to the tow truck Crawford emerged from his home proclaiming that Hardin wasn’t going to tow the vehicle, and then began hitting him in the face with the butt of the rifle he had brought outside with him. When Hardin emerged from under the truck he asked Crawford what he was going to do, shoot him? And with that, Crawford shot Hardin point blank in the chest.

On July 31, 1998 Barry Crawford was convicted of murder. But in what is an obvious mockery of justice a jury gave Crawford only 10-years of probation. Judge Ted Poe stipulated the following conditions of Crawford’s supervised release: 1,000 hours of community service and Crawford is mandated by the court to take flower’s to Steven’s grave, pay child support to Steven’s wife for their two children, carry a photo of Steven in his wallet and carry a sign 5-times during the year that reads, “I killed a citizen in Humble.” Even with the sign Steven Hardin isn’t given the dignity of being identified as Crawford’s victim. He’s just a nameless, faceless person on a sign that few people will probably ever look at closely enough to read.

Crawford was also given 6-months in jail but bonded out pending appeal, 17-days after being incarcerated.

Crawford has shown no remorse for his actions, he’s given no apology to the victim’s family. He arrogantly goes about town, walking free, with punishment that is befit of owning an unlicensed pet, not the arrogant wanton murder of an innocent man.

It should come as no surprise that when you give probation for murder the killer is not necessarily going to take the conditions of his generous Get Out of Jail Free card seriously. Such is the case with Barry Crawford. Crawford has never conformed to the conditions of the minuscule slap on the hand that he received for his unjustifiable murder of Steven Hardin.

“Crawford has been skirting the conditions of his probation for years,” [Andy] Kahan said. “He was supposed to carry a picture of the victim in his wallet. But he supposedly doesn’t carry a wallet. He was supposed to have a bumper sticker on his car reading, ‘Don’t mess with drugs,’ but he says he doesn’t have a car. He is about $10,000 in default on his restitution, but he’d make a $2 payment just to say he paid. He was supposed to carry a sign five times a year, but I don’t know the last time he’s done it.”

Barry Crawford, like many American’s, is waiting for his tax rebate check to arrive. Thanks to Andy Kahan’s persuasiveness and the judge's willingness to listen, Barry Crawford isn’t going to have to wait for his tax rebate any longer. Crawford’s not going to be getting one, he has been ordered to forfeit the money as part of the condition of his probation.

“That money shouldn’t be going back to your pocket. That money needs to go back to the victims,” Kahan said.

Andy has also sent a letter to the administrative judge requesting that all Texas courts give consideration to doing the same to other criminals ordered to pay their victims restitution. “It makes sense to me. You shouldn’t be getting money back from the government when you owe money to crime victims,” Kahan said.

There is a balance of tens of millions of dollars in unpaid restitution that is owed to victims. Parolees and those on probation are regaining their freedom and being released from supervision without every having completed the conditions to go along with the privileged liberation from their jail cell. These individuals are regaining their freedom without ever having paid the money owed as part of their agreement to be outside of that jail cell to begin with.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has now said that it will begin intercepting tax refund and rebate checks, and thanks to Andy Kahan other Texas criminals might just receive the same fate as Barry Crawford, which is only fitting.

Equally offensive as letting the criminal walk away into freedom without ever having paid their victims the restitution ordered by the court is the notion that murder is such a paltry little crime that it merely warrants probation. In my opinion, offering probation to someone like Barry Crawford is the equivalent of pissing on the grave of the victim. Since when did the taking of a life begin to merit such a disregard in, at the very least, human compassion, that probation and 1,000 hours of community service could be thought of as a justifiable punishment?

According to Andy Kahan, “In 1998 we had about 109 murderers on probation in Texas. We have filed legislation to eliminate murderers from being sentenced to probation, but it has been unsuccessful. Today we currently have 58 murderers on probation in the state. In my opinion this reduction is largely due to the outrage expressed by citizens over the Hardin case.”

House Bill 187 would eliminate the possibility of receiving probation for murder. Steven Hardin’s mother is pushing for it, “We can get the bill out of the House, but we haven’t been able to get it through the Senate. Hopefully this next session it will be passed. So this won’t happen to another family.”

[Andy Kahan is a victim’s advocate and the Director of Crime Victim’s Assistance for the Mayor’s Office in Houston, TX, and is the leading voice against the sale of murderbellia. You can catch Andy tonight on Nancy Grace.]