On a summer evening in Aurora, Colorado, the lives of two individuals were tragically cut short. Crystal Black, a 36-year-old woman who was seven months pregnant, was shot and killed on July 7, 2020. Also killed in the incident was 44-year-old Moses John Hamm. Crystal, a mother of four, was also known by the name Crystal Lockhart in some reports.
The investigation into the double homicide uncovered a string of violence. Authorities identified Master Titus Uriah Martin, 20 years old at the time, as the main person of interest. His name surfaced in connection not only with the deaths of Black and Hamm but also with a fatal shooting that had occurred just two days earlier, on July 5, 2020, claiming the life of 31-year-old Percil Walls. Witnesses described Martin as being a member of a gang.
Two months after the killings of Black and Hamm, law enforcement located and arrested Martin. He faced a series of charges, including three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Black, Hamm, and Walls. As his trial was about to begin, Martin entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 60 years in prison, receiving 20 years for each of the three murders he committed.
The investigation also led to the arrest of an accomplice, 29-year-old Dontavious Hetzel, who was found and taken into custody in Georgia in February 2021. Hetzel pleaded guilty to two counts of being an accessory to a felony crime for his involvement. He was sentenced to five years in community corrections. The resolution of the case brought a measure of closure to the families of the victims who were left to grieve their profound losses.
