Convicted Cop Killer's Appeal Denied

It was 10:37 p.m. on Feb. 21, 2011, when the St. Petersburg Police Department received the call that Officer David Crawford had been shot.

On Wednesday, the man convicted of shooting Crawford multiple times as he worked a suspected burglary case near Tropicana Field asked Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeals for leniency in his life sentence. That appeal was denied.

Nicholas Lindsey was 16 years old when he shot Crawford. Now 20, he was convicted in 2012 on first-degree murder charges and sentenced to life without the possibility for parole.

Lindsey’s attorneys argued his confession was coerced and that their client’s sentence of a minimum life term adds up to “cruel and unusual punishment,” according to court documents. Attorneys also argued that a term-of-years sentence, not life, was more appropriate because at 16, their client was “immature, impetuous, and unable to appreciate risks and consequences at the time the offense occurred,” the ruling noted.

See Also:

• St. Pete Remembers David Crawford

Despite arguments for leniency, the court affirmed “the minimum term of life without parole.”

Crawford was 46 at the time of his death. He left behind a wife, Donna, and an adult daughter, Amanda. Crawford was the third St. Petersburg Police officer shot and killed in the line of duty during a 30 day period in 2011. Just a month prior to his death, Sgt. Tom Baitinger and Officer Jeffrey Yaslowitz were killed while trying to apprehend Hydra Lacy.

Lindsey is serving his time at the state’s DeSoto Annex prison in Arcadia, according to Florida Department of Corrections records.

Photo courtesy of the Florida Department of Corrections