A former Castleton man sentenced to life without parole for killing a romantic rival more than 25 years ago is eligible for release under a recent agreement with prosecutors.
Charles Crannell, 75, has long proclaimed his innocence and has been a dogged jailhouse lawyer, filing scores of appeals, petitions, motions and lawsuits and going through many lawyers over the more than two decades he’s been behind bars.
The agreement approved by a judge 10 days ago reduces his life-without-parole sentence to a term of 35 years to life, and with good time, it makes him eligible for parole or furlough. No decision has been made on either, according to the Department of Corrections.
Crannell remains locked up in the Springfield prison.
He was convicted in 1995 of first-degree premeditated murder in the death of John Kenworthy, whom prosecutors say Crannell viewed as getting in the way of his own attempt to reunite with his former wife.
“This is really a remarkable case, that’s for sure,” Matthew Valerio, the state’s defender general, said Thursday. “I’ve never seen one that has taken this long and gone through this tortuous a legal process to get us to this point.”
Robert Sussman, a Burlington attorney contracted by the public defender’s office to serve as part of its “serious felony unit,” was Crannell’s counsel for the past several years, including for this case. Sussman could not be reached Thursday for comment.
Rutland County State’s Attorney Rose Kennedy said the agreement was reached in consultation with Kenworthy’s daughter.
The prosecutor said the factors that went into the decision included the time that has passed in the mostly circumstantial case and the risk of the judge issuing a ruling that could force a retrial.
“Given (Crannell’s) age, given what we did with the sentence,” Kennedy said, “we thought it was the best outcome to continue to hold him accountable for his behavior and protect the community, but also resolve the risk of potentially having to retry a 25-year-old murder case.”
The agreement brings to a close a long-running appeal stemming from a petition Crannell filed in 2001 on his own behalf for post-conviction relief, a civil process challenging his conviction after all his avenues through the criminal court system had been exhausted.
In his filing, Crannell made several claims, including that previous lawyers had provided him “ineffective” assistance and that new evidence and witnesses had emerged, including one who would say she saw him in Pennsylvania at the time of the fire in Castleton.
“In order to resolve Mr. Crannell’s petition and without any admission, concession or finding of ineffective assistance of counsel or merit as to any of the other claims,” the parties agreed to the amended sentence of 35 years to life, the three-page agreement stated.
Rutland County Deputy State’s Attorney John Waszak signed the agreement on behalf of the state, and Sussman, representing Crannell, also signed the document. Superior Court Judge Helen Toor approved it.
Waszak said Thursday that Kenworthy’s daughter agreed it represented “a just resolution.”
“She’s moved on from this chapter of her life,” the deputy prosecutor said, “and as best she could she has forgiven Charles Crannell.”
Waszak added, “I think the finality, the ending of all this litigation, and the possibility that he might undo what really was a successful prosecution in a complex circumstantial case, we don’t have to worry about that anymore and the defendant is still in prison.”
And until Crannell takes certain steps, including accepting responsibility for his actions, gaining release is not automatic, Waszak said. “I don’t know if he’s in a position to do that,” he added.
Valerio, who referred specific questions on the case to Sussman, did say Thursday that it is not unprecedented for a person serving a life-without-parole sentence to eventually reach a resolution in a case allowing for release.
There also have been cases where someone sentenced to an “effective” life sentence of 50 to 75 years behind bars has reached similar arrangements that reduce the sentence post-conviction, he said.
It’s not that common, though, Valerio added, in part because sentences of those lengths are rare in Vermont.
According to court records, early in the morning on Oct. 19, 1992, firefighters responded to the scene of a blaze at Kenworthy’s Castleton home. Kenworthy’s body was found about 25 feet from the house, arms bound behind him, with an oil-soaked shirt wrapped around one arm.
He had been stabbed more than 60 times and hit on the head with a blunt object, like a hammer or baseball bat, records filed in the case said.
Through investigation, police learned Kenworthy had been married to Sandra Crannell from 1980 to 1982. Also, the investigation revealed that Sandra Crannell had recently divorced Charles Crannell, and he had been trying to reconcile with her, filings state.
Charles Crannell, who was living at the time in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, drove a 1985 two-tone Corvette that several witnesses told police they saw in Castleton during the hours immediately before and after the homicide.
One witness also reported that the driver of the Corvette was wearing a distinctive hat, described as a “watch cap,” and such a hat was found at the crime scene, records stated.
Also, Sandra Crannell told police she had obtained a restraining order to keep Charles Crannell away from her house because he had threatened to beat up anyone she was dating, and he believed she may be getting back together with Kenworthy.
Charles Crannell was arrested in Pennsylvania on Oct. 21, 1992, and after lengthy pretrial proceedings, he was convicted in October 1995.
Waszak said Thursday that during the trial Charles Crannell’s innocence claims were “largely discredited.”
At trial, Waszak added, “clumsy” schemes that prosecutors say the defendant carried out to manufacture evidence put a big dent in the defense. The schemes allegedly included sending letters to police from the “real killer” that were later traced back to Charles Crannell or those with whom he was in prison.
“One doesn’t act like that,” the deputy prosecutor said, “if you are innocent.”
Among the difficulties in possibly retrying in the case, Waszak said, are the fact that many of the witnesses are no longer around or living, and investigative materials are not easy to locate.
Also, he added, “The woman who was at the epicenter of this triangle, if you will, Sandra Crannell, passed away in 2008.”
