Sister, friend keep shooting victim close to their hearts

Sean Crow's sister made sure she was in court Thursday for the trial of the man accused of assisting in his murder.

Dangling from a slender chain around Shannon Smith's neck was a small silver vial containing some of her late brother's ashes.

"I just bring him to court with me every time so he's here," she said.

Kacie Biggs wore a similar pendant as she sat next to Smith, listening to Glen Scott Evans testify on his own behalf.

Evans is accused of driving Matt Cook to Advance, Mo., to kill the 34-year-old heavy equipment operator, who was found shot to death in his truck Feb. 20, 2013, outside a fast-food restaurant.

"He was great. He would do anything for anybody," Smith said of her brother.

Biggs, who said she had been friends with Crow for 21 years, echoed that assessment.

"If you were standing on the side of the road, and your car was broke down, Sean would be the first person to help you," she said.

Biggs bristled at testimony in which Cook was quoted as calling Crow a "biker dude that rips people off on dope deals."

"Everything they've tried to say about Sean is just to tear him down," she said.

Crow belonged to the Galloping Goose Motorcycle Club, but he was not a drug dealer, Biggs said.

She pointed to testimony Tuesday in which forensic pathologist Russell Deidiker said no alcohol or drugs were found in Crow's system after his death.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol lists Galloping Goose as an outlaw motorcycle gang that is involved in drug trafficking.

Biggs characterized the group not as a gang, but as a club whose members had been kind to Crow's loved ones in the wake of his death.

"My main concern is they're trying to make Sean look like a drug-dealing gang leader," Biggs said. "He was affiliated with them, but they have been very supportive to everybody since this has happened to Sean."

In a videotaped interview with officers after Cook's arrest, Evans said Cook had been fighting with his girlfriend and was using her phone to send texts to someone he suspected may have been romantically involved with her.

Biggs and Smith said that was the real motive behind the shooting.

"It was over Matt's girlfriend, which was Sean's ex-girlfriend," Smith said.

Biggs described Crow as a funny, well-liked person who seldom got angry.

"You had to really, really do something to Sean to make him mad," Biggs said. "He was the type if he could walk away, he'd walk away."

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Advance, MO