WVa trial starts for man in killing of girlfriend’s daughter

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia teenager whose body was found along a road had sent a worrisome text about the presence of her mother’s boyfriend in her room, a prosecutor said during the start of the man’s trial.

Prosecutors began presenting their case Monday in Morgan County Circuit Court in the trial of Andy J. McCauley Jr. in the May 2019 death of Riley Crossman, news outlets reported.

Division of Natural Resources officers found the 15-year-old Crossman’s decomposed body along the side of a road in Berkeley County. Berkeley Springs High School had contacted her mother a week earlier about her absence from school.

McCauley was taken into custody hours after the body was found, charged with first-degree murder and concealment of a body. The trial was postponed from April after McCauley was exposed in jail to someone who had tested positive for COVID-19.

Morgan County Prosecutor Dan James said Crossman had sent her boyfriend a text message the night of May 7, 2019.

“Andy’s in my room and I’m scared,” James said. The boyfriend had fallen asleep when the message was sent.

James said drywall compound was found on Crossman’s body on May 16, 2019, along with several heavy-duty trash bags. McCauley was a construction worker whose boss indicated the suspect showed up to a site one day saying he needed three of the bags, the prosecutor said.

Jurors were shown a still image from a surveillance camera that indicated a truck matching the description of one McCauley was driving was traveling on a road in the area where Crossman’s body was found.

Defense attorney Andy Arnold told jurors that McCauley had “zero motive” to kill Crossman and that there were five others in her home around the time of her disappearance.

“We share the horror of this tragic death,” Arnold said. “But there’s a second possible horror, the unjust conviction of an innocent man.”