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ROCKVILLE, Md.--Benjamin Sifrit claims he was sleeping off a long night of drinking in his Jeep while his wife was killing two tourists in their Ocean City condominium. His only role in the crime, he said, was to cut up and dispose of the bodies.
But Worcester County prosecutors say Sifrit was wide awake early May 26, chasing Virginia residents Martha Crutchley and Joshua Ford into the condo bathroom and shooting them as they cowered behind the door. The two were killed as part of a twisted game the Sifrits played more than once, prosecutors said.
Where Sifrit was that morning is probably a key factor for jurors determining his role in the slayings of Ford, 32, and Crutchley, 51. The case went yesterday to a Montgomery County jury after a six-day trial.
Sifrit is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and several other charges in the deaths of the Fairfax couple. His wife, Erika--a Mary Washington College honors graduate--faces similar charges and is scheduled to go on trial June 2 in Frederick County. Both cases were moved from Worcester County due to pretrial publicity.
In his closing argument, State's Attorney Joel Todd said the Sifrits lured Crutchley and Ford back to the penthouse suite at the Rainbow Condominium after a night in the bars.
Once there, the Sifrits played their game, he said. Erika Sifrit claimed her purse had been stolen, sending her husband into a rage. Rather than panic, Todd said, Ford probably stood his ground, not intimidated by the former Navy SEAL's anger.
"Joshua Ford didn't want to play the game," Todd said.
But when Sifrit pulled out a gun, Ford and Crutchley fled to the bathroom, with Ford leaning against the door as a barricade, Todd said. Sifrit fired once through the door, hitting Ford in the arm, then kicked it down.
He allegedly shot Ford two more times, and then turned on Crutchley. Todd said authorities don't believe Crutchley was shot, but he couldn't say how she died because little of her body was recovered.
Todd acknowledged he can't prove conclusively that it was Sifrit, not his wife, who fired the gun. But he said Sifrit was not innocently sleeping when the other couple was murdered.
"We'll never know, and you'll never know, who pulled the trigger that night. But one thing is for sure, they were both there," Todd said.
Todd and Sifrit's attorney, William Brennan, agreed Erika Sifrit--who was a history major and star basketball player at MWC--had serious emotional problems. Sifrit testified Monday that his wife was obsessive-compulsive, frequently out of control and prone to panic attacks when he was not around.
Calling her "Crazy Erika," Brennan said Sifrit suffered one of those panic attacks the morning Crutchley and Ford were killed. With her husband sleeping in the car and not there to keep her in check, she lost control, Brennan said.
"The woman who knows no boundaries, who cannot control herself, that is the murderer in this case," he said.
On the stand, Sifrit said he helped his wife cover up the killings, cutting the bodies into several pieces, wrapping them in bags and dumping them in a Delaware trash bin. Only parts of both were found later in a landfill.
But Todd said Sifrit used "selective memory" when he testified. For example, Sifrit couldn't remember if there were wounds on Crutchley and Ford's bodies when he dismembered them. He also couldn't explain two used bullets police found on a table in the condo, one with Ford's DNA on it.
And Todd said Sifrit told a woman he was the killer a few days after the crime. Melissa Seling said the Sifrits played the same game with her and a friend on May 29, claiming Mrs. Sifrit's purse was missing as they partied at the Sifrit condo.
Seling said Sifrit produced a gun, told her he had shot another couple who had "ripped them off" and pointed to a bullet hole in the bathroom door.
Brennan said Seling lied, and that she escaped the Sifrit condo alive only because Sifrit was there to keep his wife under control.
"When we know Benjamin is there, when it's without doubt this young man is there, people don't die," he said.
Friends say the Sifrits met at a party in Fredericksburg in 1999. They say Erika Grace immediately fell in love with the Navy SEAL who'd come to the party with some other sailors stationed in Virginia Beach.
A year later, Benjamin Sifrit was court-martialed for absence without leave, drunken driving and insubordination. He received a bad conduct discharge from the military.