Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi announced that a Mount Laurel man was sentenced to 31 years in New Jersey state prison for killing his wife on New Year’s Eve in 2014 and later disposing of her body in a rural area in Maryland.
Under terms established in a plea agreement, the Hon. Charles A. Delehey, J.S.C. sentenced Kyle Crosby to 28 years in state prison for aggravated manslaughter and three years for hindering apprehension. The terms will run consecutively.
Under the state’s No Early Release Act, Crosby, 29, must serve 85 percent of the sentence for the homicide charge before becoming eligible for parole.
When pleading guilty at a previous court appearance, Crosby admitted that on Dec. 31, 2014 he fatally choked his wife, Erica Crippen, age 26, inside their Mt. Laurel home and later transported her body to Maryland.
“Kyle Crosby took a vow to love and honor Erica Crippen. Instead, he chose to end her life and dump her body in a Maryland field,” Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi said. “There is no greater act of evil that could be shown toward someone you pledged to protect. His attempts to conceal this gruesome act were calculated and extensive. I am saddened by the grief that this heart wrenching crime has forever created within those who loved Erica. I am thankful for the detectives and prosecutors whose skill and determination to seek justice for all victims of crime uncovered the evidence that exposed Kyle Crosby as the killer, and enabled us to remove him from society and put him in prison for the next three decades.”
Crosby’s mother, Jo Crosby, age 68, of Saint Moritz Drive in Sicklerville, was indicted in April 2015 on one count of Hindering Apprehension and one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
As part of the plea agreement with Kyle Crosby, the charges against his mother were dismissed.