‘He just snapped.’ Judge allows evidence of alleged confession into Crockett murder trial

A Bibb Superior Court judge admitted evidence in court Wednesday that prosecutors say includes a confession from a Macon man accused of a 2020 triple murder.

Prosecuting attorneys in the case of Caesar Crockett, who is accused of killing three relatives of his child’s mother before kidnapping their 2-year-old son, called a witness to the stand Wednesday morning who testified that Crockett admitted to the crime during hostage negotiations.

After Crockett took his son King Crockett following the shooting, he got into a standoff with Florida police in Tampa, attorneys said. Tampa police Lt. Whitney McCormick testified that during that standoff, without being asked about the Georgia shooting, Crockett told officers he “had made the biggest mistake of his life.”

Crockett asked about the condition of the people who were shot in the house and said that the mother of his child only escaped the house because “she was out of the house after I shot,” McCormick said, telling the officer “he just snapped.”

Before the evidence could be admitted at trial, Crockett’s defenders argued it should not be allowed, saying Crockett had been in a form of police custody when he spoke about the crime.

Judge Howard Simms ruled the evidence admissible, citing multiple court cases in other states that allowed for statements made during hostage negotiations to be used as evidence.

“This multiple-hour-long conversation with the defendant was not designed to get information from him,” Simms said. “It is not a custodial interrogation for that purpose.”

Crockett’s comments and questions about the shooting he made during the Tampa standoff will be presented to the jury as the trial continues this week.