Feb. 24--DURHAM -- Closure isn't exactly the right word with respect to Monday's guilty verdict for the woman charged with Denita Smith's murder, according to N.C. Central University assistant professor Bruce dePyssler.
"Closure -- I've always had a hard time with that one," dePyssler said. "I don't think the loss gets undone."
Justice was served, dePyssler said, but there's still a hole in the world without Denita Smith.
Jurors on Monday convicted Shannon Crawley of fatally shooting Smith Jan. 4, 2007, at Campus Crossings apartments on East Cornwallis Road. Superior Court Judge Ronald Stephens sentenced Crawley to life in prison without parole.
As faculty adviser for the Campus Echo, NCCU's newspaper, dePyssler had worked with Smith. She was 25 and working on a master's degree in English at NCCU when she was killed. But she also wrote stories and snapped pictures for the Campus Echo. The newspaper work on campus forged a bond between dePyssler and Smith.
Rony Camille, a 2007 NCCU graduate, was Campus Echo's editor in chief when Smith was killed. Anticipating the trial, Camille -- differing from dePyssler -- last year did talk in terms of the closure a verdict would bring. This week's ruling offered some comfort, Camille said.
"Very relieved," Camille said Tuesday. "Justice was served."
Camille now works in Tyngsboro, Mass., as the town's media program director, so he couldn't follow the trial the way he would have liked, he said. Camille said he plans to get court transcripts of the trial so he can dig deeper.
Still, the verdict "doesn't bring Denita back," Camille said.
And what's sad is along with Smith's loved ones being without her, Crawley leaves behind two children, Camille said.
"Those kids have lost a mom," Camille said.
And the world lost "a star" when Crawley killed Smith, Assistant District Attorney David Saacks said. Saacks said Smith now ought to have been covering stories like the professional journalists chronicling Crawley's trial.
Camille said he has hanging on his living room wall a picture from a 2004 NCCU basketball game in Charlotte. Smith took that picture. Camille keeps it because he was with Smith at that game.
That road trip also was when Camille said he met Jermeir Jackson-Stroud, the Greensboro police officer on whom even the judge in Crawley's trial placed part of the blame for Smith's death.
Jackson-Stroud during the trial testified he had a sexual relationship with Crawley while he was engaged to Smith. The prosecutor said Crawley killed Smith because she envied the NCCU graduate student's relationship with Jackson-Stroud.
During his Campus Echo days, Camille said sources told him he'd be shocked by what came out during the trial. They were right, he said.
"The day that Jermeir testified, I was disappointed. I cried," said Camille, 25. "It serves as a lesson to all -- don't cheat!"
"It's uncalled for," Sheena Johnson, another friend of Smith's from her Campus Echo days, said about Jackson-Stroud's two-timing. "I hope he can live with himself."
Johnson is director of communications and marketing for Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce. But during her time at NCCU, she tag-teamed on Campus Echo stories with Smith. Johnson was the writer. Smith took the pictures. There were lots of late nights together for the sake of putting out a newspaper, so the two developed a close relationship, Johnson said.
The verdict in Crawley's case did provide closure for Johnson, she said. But it is bothersome knowing her friend didn't even know Jackson-Stroud was being unfaithful, Johnson said.
"This wouldn't have happened if he had been a stand-up guy," Johnson said.
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