After being resentenced to life in prison for 2008 double murder, Crenshaw yells at judge to ‘wipe’ with the ruling

Tuesday was the first day the man who brutally stabbed two people 17 years ago and left them impaled with swords admitted to their families that he killed them.

And then 30 minutes later, when the judge overseeing his resentencing case denied his request for less prison time, the handcuffed Justin Crenshaw shouted, “Don’t forget to wipe your ass with that, your honor!”

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Dean Chuang had just resentenced Crenshaw to two consecutive life terms in prison without parole. It was the same sentence he received in 2010 after being convicted by a jury for the murders of 18-year-old Mead High School student Sarah Clark and 20-year-old guitar player and aspiring chef Tanner Pehl.

Chuang remarked earlier that even though Crenshaw apologized and took responsibility, he continued to say that it wasn’t his fault and that the crime was “explainable.” Chuang’s comment immediately set off Crenshaw, who also yelled “That’s not what I said!” and asked media to check the transcript of the remarks. He cussed at the judge under his breath.

Chuang retorted from the bench: “Well, that outburst only adds to it.”

Crenshaw, now 37, did in fact say, and continued to say in his speech to the families, that “everything is explainable” in regards to the killings Feb. 28, 2008.

His explanation: He has PTSD from childhood trauma of a tumultuous home life and drug abuse at age 12, that he has an allergy to alcohol that causes him to black out immediately after ingesting it, and that those delayed his maturity enough to lead him to kill at age 20.

The Pehl and Clark families didn’t believe it excused their loss.

“If Mr. Crenshaw is released, he will kill again,” Chuang said Tuesday.

That’s when Crenshaw grew even angrier.

As Chuang tried to restore order, Crenshaw continued to scream and make comments to the media filming him in the jury box.

Chuang called for a recess and Crenshaw, still shouting, was escorted out of the room. Crenshaw’s fiancée stood up and made a comment about the “corruption” in the justice system.

After the outburst, Tanner Pehl’s father, Dave, said his “heart leapt out” of his chest.

“This was confirmation that the first sentence was the right one,” Dave Pehl told The Spokesman-Review.

Crenshaw was back in court this week to plead his case following a 2021 Washington State Supreme Court ruling that determined “youthful offenders” ages 18 to 20 should be treated with discretion at sentencing, because their maturity level is typically less than that of older adults. The judge had to weigh the circumstances of Crenshaw’s acts against circumstances that may contribute to a youth’s decision to commit a crime.

Some of those circumstances include the offender’s age, the family and home environment, the extent of his participation in the crime and whether he was peer-pressured into it, his ability to participate in his own defense, and his possibility of rehabilitation.

Ultimately, Chuang decided the family’s statements from Monday afternoon were too powerful and the facts of the crime too brutal to mitigate Crenshaw’s youth. Authorities even warned the victims’ families at the time it was very likely Crenshaw would have become a serial killer had he not been arrested so quickly.

On the night of Feb. 27, Crenshaw took Clark to the home of his new friend, Tanner Pehl, to hang out and drink. Hours later, the home would become a nightmare.

Clark, who was just about to graduate high school, was stabbed 26 times, some in the head, her throat was slit from behind and a Samurai sword was found through her neck. Pehl was stabbed more than a dozen times, and his body was found pinned to the floor by a broadsword rammed through his chest.

Blood soaked the floor and walls of the murder scene. Family pictures were taken off the walls and methodically placed upside down. Crenshaw then set the home on fire, according to court records. Crenshaw fled the scene in Clark’s car and put bloody clothes in a plastic bag that he hid in his aunt’s basement.

Crenshaw moved from Las Vegas to Spokane to stay with family, court records say. He got a job at the same steakhouse where Pehl worked. Pehl, being friendly, knew Crenshaw was struggling with sobriety and other problems with the law from Las Vegas, so he befriended him. About the same time, a Crenshaw family member introduced him to a mutual friend: Clark. The two began casually seeing each other.

“The nature of the crime, the planning, the deliberate cruelty … the sheer cover-up,” Chuang commented. “It shows maturity of an adult mind.”

Dave Pehl felt it was clear Crenshaw was grasping at straws – saying he was remorseful and that the murder was tragic – to receive a lesser sentence. Crenshaw claimed he was involved in multiple programs while imprisoned to help him heal and become a better person, like the Prison Pet Partnership. The program lets incarcerated people train dogs in order to reduce recidivism.

“This is a horrible and tragic story, and first and foremost, I want to express my deepest, sincere remorse to the families of Sarah and Tanner,” Crenshaw said, adding that Clark’s smile and dimples continue to “haunt” him.

“I am not the same person now as I was then. Over the years, I’ve worked hard to change and grow and become a better man for when I re-enter society one day.”

Crenshaw also completed a program from Southern Utah University about reintegration and engagement in society, something he touted during his speech to claim he has been making efforts towards healing. But all those efforts were made well after his attorney filed a motion to have him resentenced, not before.

Before those efforts, Crenshaw is documented as having more than a dozen infractions in prison for various reasons, like slashing someone’s face with a razor blade, engaging in gang activity, stabbing a man over 70 times and kicking him in the head, and killing his cellmate. His most recent documented assault against an inmate was a year ago, according to Spokane County Prosecutor Dara Schroeter. Between infractions, he was transferred to two different prisons because the state of Washington was “at wit’s end” trying to manage Crenshaw’s violent behavior, Chuang said.

“His behavior is identical to what he did when he murdered Ms. Clark and Mr. Pehl,” the judge said. Crenshaw’s fiancée looked at him and cried. “The court does not find youthfulness as a mitigating factor in Mr. Crenshaw at all.”

There may have been a fleeting moment Dave Pehl said he felt the emotions Crenshaw was trying to convey during his speech to the court, even though he didn’t think the man who murdered his son was being sincere.

“A desperate man is going to throw everything he can out there,” Dave Pehl said. “It’s his last chance.”

Shelly Crenshaw also spoke to the court, calling herself a “proud” mother and that Justin Crenshaw is a “beautiful soul” who was not in his right mind the night he killed Pehl and Clark.

“I have stayed silent for a long time knowing nothing I would say could ever bring back the beautiful children, Tanner and Sarah – I think about them daily, along with my son Justin,” she said. “Everyone thinks Justin is evil, and I’m telling you, no. I could tell you a million stories about his love … his loyalty.”

Katie Hays, Tanner Pehl’s sister, stood beside the courtroom’s well and cried as she watched Justin Crenshaw argue with county staff after the judge dismissed court for the day.

“I felt bad for you,” Hays cried to him, and turned to her family. “I’ve always felt bad for him.”

That’s exactly what she relayed to reporters Tuesday as she sported a brown flannel with her brother’s name and birthday on the back.

She’s always wanted to forgive Justin Crenshaw, she said, but his lack of remorse throughout the years made her unable to. During his first trial in 2010, Hays even rejected the idea of sentencing him to the death penalty, feeling that she didn’t have the right to decide who lives and who should die.

She felt Crenshaw’s childhood involvement in gangs, running drugs and being abused at a young age helped her understand his life. But it also didn’t excuse his violent acts, she said.

Hays said Crenshaw showed more respect to the families Tuesday than he did at his first sentencing 15 years ago.

“One of my weaknesses is I get too sad for people too easy,” she said. “I already felt bad for him, and then that’s where my brain had to kick in, because trauma is real.”

At one point, Hays and her mother ran into Shelly Crenshaw at the downstairs courthouse coffee shop. Rather than awkward animosity, the Pehls hugged her.

“They went and hugged, and my mom said, ‘You lost a son too,’ ” Hays said. “It was amazing, actually, to stand there and be part of that … That is how people should treat each other. She didn’t kill Tanner. He did.”

Clark’s family was more staunch in their approach to Justin Crenshaw. Teesha Clark, Sarah’s mother, refused to look at Crenshaw as he turned to them to apologize.

“I didn’t want to give him any kind of feedback to what he was saying, because he murdered our daughter,” she said. “He has no remorse. I don’t believe anything he says.”

They also refuse to say his name out loud.

Emily Gant, Sarah Clark’s sister, says she prefers to speak Clark’s and Pehl’s names.

Gant said the killer has stolen enough from her family, so he shouldn’t get their thoughts or their words.

Each family – who never met before, but now are bonded by the trauma of loss – will forever tie Clark’s and Pehl’s names to each other. And they’ll continue to honor her with a place at the table and her favorite kind of cake: confetti.

“Their names get to be in my memory. Their names come up all the time,” Gant said. “His doesn’t.”