HARRISBURG — Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that the conviction will stand against a Columbia County man who murdered his then-girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in 2017.
Michael Crimi was convicted in 2021 of third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child, and sentenced to 19 to 40 years in prison. According to testimony, Crimi resented the child and believed her mother was becoming distant from him when he beat the girl to death. Treating doctors found bruising all over the girl’s body.
A Columbia County Judge this week denied Crimi’s Post Conviction Relief Act filing that alleged ineffective counsel, and ruled that the conviction will stand.
”This was nothing more than a convicted killer’s latest attempt to avoid responsibility for callously murdering a defenseless little girl, because he was jealous and experiencing relationship difficulties with her mother,” Attorney General Sunday said.
Crimi previously sought relief from the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which also dismissed his claims.
The child was killed shortly after Thanksgiving in 2017, when the child was left in Crimi’s care. In the days leading up to the murder, the defendant believed that the child’s mother was attempting to break up with him and had become suspicious of her and increasingly frustrated with the child while acting as her caretaker.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher Schmidt handled post-conviction matters on behalf of the Commonwealth. The Office of Attorney General also secured the conviction in the case.
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