Michael Crane pleads guilty to multiple charges in 2012 crime spree; 3 murder counts remain
Michael Kiefer
After an hour-long hearing in which he spouted conspiracy theories and repeatedly challenged the judge, Michael Crane pleaded guilty Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court to three counts of burglary and one count each of theft and misconduct with weapons related to a 2012 crime and killing spree that left three people dead.
He did so without the benefit of a plea agreement from prosecutors.
According to his attorneys, Crane has offered to plead guilty to the murders, as well, in exchange for a life sentence. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Still at issue, however, is Crane's mental competence.
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During Wednesday's hearing, he admitted that he has refused to take medication prescribed for him (he has been diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder, a cross between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder). He also repeatedly invoked his imagined status as a "sovereign citizen" and insisted that state laws do not apply to him.
Crane specifically cited the Uniform Commercial Code, often referred to as the UCC, a code enacted to coordinate laws of commerce among states and nations. But certain jailhouse lawyers construe it as a kind of super law that trumps all others. Maritime law and admiralty law are often cited in the same manner and frequently used to muddy legal proceedings; their proponents file legal documents with language that often reads like the King James Bible.
Crane read his own manifesto late in the hearing, asking Judge Warren Granville to acknowledge his interpretation of law. Granville remained silent, which Crane said was an "assent."
Crane's attorney, Jamie Sparks, asked that Granville not accept the plea as "willing and voluntary" based on his utterances during the hearing and her interactions with him on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The prosecutor, Deputy County Attorney Patricia Stevens, quickly noted that Crane had been judged to be competent by Granville, based on an October hearing in which a court-appointed mental health professional stated that Crane was putting on an act.
"Competent," in legal terms, does not mean that a person does not have mental illness — it only means that the defendant understands the proceedings against him or her and is capable of assisting attorneys in his defense.
Crane has been in an out of what is called Restoration to Competency since he was arrested. His attorneys have consistently claimed he is too mentally ill to stand trial and prosecutors have consistently insisted that he is pretending.
According to the charges against him, on Jan. 26, 2012, Crane and an accomplice broke into the Phoenix home of Bruce Gaudet, shot him and set fire to his condominium before stealing his car. Four days later, prosecutors believe, Crane broke into the Paradise Valley home of Glenna and Lawrence Shapiro, robbed them, shot them and then set the house on fire; both died. Crane was charged with 15 counts, including first-degree murder, kidnapping, burglary, arson and auto theft.
He pleaded guilty to many of the other counts in 2017.
As of this writing, the County Attorney's Office had not yet responded as to whether it would consider offering a plea agreement on the murder accounts.
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