A Springfield man convicted of strangling a woman to death in early 2023 was sentenced to life in prison on March 8, 2024, in a Greene County courtroom.
Jerome Poole, 60, was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder for strangling 41-year-old Crystal M. Dye to death on March 7, 2023.
It took the jury about an hour to find Poole guilty following a two-day trial in December of 2023 in Greene County Circuit Judge Kaiti Greenwade’s courtroom.
“Mr. Poole has taken zero accountability for what he’s done,” Greene County First Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Emily Shook said at the sentencing hearing. “He denies he did anything wrong. He expressed numerous times he doesn’t understand how he got here.”
Shook said Poole has sent letters to Springfield Police Department’s Internal Affairs, accusing first responders of making it look like Dye had been strangled when they attempted life-saving measures on her unresponsive body.
Shook reminded the court of evidence presented during the trial about the brutal injuries to Dye’s body and Poole’s repeated claims to not know her and not know her name.
“He didn’t think anyone would look carefully at Crystal Dye’s death,” Shook said.
Victim’s daughter struggles with ‘Why?’ and ‘How could he?’
At the time of her death, Dye was homeless and struggling with substance use disorder.
Dye’s daughter, Chassity, came to most of the trial in December and the sentencing on March 8. Chassity shared with the Hauxeda that she lived with Dye until Chassity was about 5 years old. Because of her mother’s struggles with substance use disorder, Chassity went to live with a relative and later entered a foster home. Then she was adopted by a Springfield family.
Though Dye was usually homeless, Chassity said she stayed in touch with her mother. Chassity said her mother often tried to get sober with the hope of being reunited with her children, but it just never worked out for very long stretches of time.
Chassity sat in the front row during the sentencing hearing and gave a letter to Shook to read to the court. In the letter, Chassity lamented her mom not being able to attend her graduation, her wedding or to meet Chassity’s future spouse or Dye’s future grandchildren. In the letter, Chassity told the court about the impact Dye’s murder has had on her mental health.
“I struggle with grief and confusion,” Chassity wrote. “I struggle with ‘why’ and ‘how could he?’”
Shook told the court Dye had a “complicated life” but always had “hope of a better life,” and dreamed of being reunified with her daughter.
“Her daughter was hanging on to that hope,” Shook said. “(Poole) took all of Crystal Dye’s tomorrows.”
What happened to Crystal Dye?
According to information presented at the trial, it was Poole who called police officers to his home at 206 S. Clifton Ave. around 3:30 a.m. on March 7, 2023. Poole reported a woman was unconscious and not breathing.
In video footage from police body cameras shown during the trial, Poole can be seen speaking with police officers while paramedics tried for several minutes to save Dye.
In the footage, Poole can be heard telling police that Dye was “up and talking” 15 minutes prior to his 911 call. Poole said he’d been talking to Dye while he was doing dishes, but didn’t receive a response, so he went to check on her. Poole told officers he thought Dye was asleep at first, but then called 911 after splashing water on her and still getting no response.
Poole repeatedly denied knowing Dye very well or even knowing her name. According to information presented at trial, Dye had been homeless for several years.
“She just comes by,” Poole said to the officers. “It really didn’t matter to me what her name is…”
Poole told the responding officers that Dye stopped by his place around 8:30 p.m. March 6. They had dinner, talked and then Dye went to lie down in Poole's bedroom. And that was it.
It was not immediately clear what caused Dye’s death, so Poole was not arrested when police initially responded.
Later in the day, Dye’s body underwent an autopsy. The medical examiner discovered injuries all over her body, including multiple blunt force injuries to her head, face, back, arms and legs, as well as injuries to her neck indicating she had been strangled. She also had fractured ribs that were not caused by CPR.
Armed with the medical examiner’s findings, Det. Brian Smith with the Springfield Police Department questioned Poole again about what happened to Dye.
Poole told Smith that he and Dye had showered together and had sex a few times before Poole found her unresponsive.
Smith’s body camera video footage from this interview with Poole was played in court March 6.
“This is as shocking to me as it is to you guys,” Poole can be heard saying to Smith. “I’m freaked out about it just like you all are.”
Poole did not testify at his trial.
Jerome Poole tells judge he wanted to testify
Prior to the judge announcing the life sentence, Poole’s public defense attorney Carol Palmer asked her client get 10 years instead.
“Mr. Poole has maintained his innocence from the beginning. That is why we went to trial,” Palmer said, adding his statements have been consistent from the beginning.
Poole’s former employer, Sang Bealer, testified as a character witness for Poole, saying she’d known him for about a year and that he did construction and landscaping work for her.
After he was sentenced to life in prison, Judge Greenwade went over Poole’s rights and asked him if he was satisfied with his attorneys. Poole complained about not getting to see all the discovery he wanted and insisted he wanted to testify at trial, but his attorneys pressured him to not testify.
Judge Greenwade reminded Poole that she was the judge who presided over the trial and reminded Poole about asking him outside the presence of the jury if he wanted to testify. Greenwade told Poole that he said multiple times that he understood his right to testify or not testify.
In the end, Greenwade found no probable cause of ineffective counsel and remanded Poole back to the Greene County Jail.
He will be transported to a Missouri Department of Corrections prison.
