Nicole Crawford wasn’t the first woman Justin Chaffier had victimized.
She wasn’t the second or the third, or even the fourth.
Chaffier, who was convicted in March of stalking and killing 36-year-old Nicole at her Bear home in Feb. 2021, had been targeting women for more than a decade, prosecutors said as he was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.
Nicole just happened to be the woman with whom he took it too far. Or, as her family and friends choose to believe, she was the woman who finally tripped him up – the one who made it impossible for him to hurt anyone else.
Surrounded by loved ones in New Castle County courtroom 4B on Friday morning, Nicole’s aunt described all that Chaffier took from their family, the community and Nicole’s two sons, 8-year-old Gabriel and 5-year-old Oliver.
Through tears, Dawn Manzolillo − speaking on behalf of Nicole’s mother, who sat in the gallery − told the court that Nicole had missed Oliver’s recent pre-school graduation. Gabriel’s communion weeks ago. Trips to the apple orchard and the beach and Disney, all places Nicole loved to take her boys.
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And she explained that because of Chaffier’s decision that February night, Nicole’s parents lost the privilege of being grandparents. Instead, they must keep on the boys about homework, school events, birthday parties and doctor’s visits, all “because they don’t have their mom.”
“When we sleep, we have nightmares,” Manzolillo said, adding that Gabriel is in therapy because of his mother’s death.
“We don’t know what it feels like to not be stressed or worried or anxious. We can’t remember what it feels like not to grieve.”
The stalking and killing
In the weeks leading up to Nicole’s death, Chaffier “terrorized” the woman, neighbors first told police and then later testified at the March trial.
The two had begun dating in the summer of 2020 but broke up about six months later, around New Year’s 2021, after Nicole learned Chaffier hadn’t been faithful. While they continued seeing each other occasionally after the breakup, Nicole made it clear she was in charge of the now-casual relationship.
This, prosecutors, family and friends have repeatedly said, didn’t sit well with Chaffier. In response, he began showing up uninvited at her home, work and even a Target she was shopping at.
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Over about a two-week period in mid-February, Chaffier’s stalking escalated, beginning first by trekking around her backyard and up her deck to her bedroom window while she slept.
Several days after that, he drove down from his King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, apartment to peer in Nicole’s kitchen window as she worked from home mid-afternoon because she wasn’t responding to his repeated text messages.
Just three days after that, he again made the trip from his apartment to her house, lurking around her home and peering into her windows for hours until neighbors called police.
The New Castle County Police officers who arrived that night temporarily scared him off, but he returned five days later. That night – Feb. 25, 2021 – he strangled Nicole to death, then used her phone to cover his tracks.
Her mother found her dead in her bedroom the following morning.
“The defendant is dangerous,” said Jenna Milecki, one of the prosecutors on the case. “That was apparent long before Nicole’s (murder).”
Chaffier was arrested and charged with stalking one week after Nicole’s death. In August 2021, following a medical examiner’s report ruling Nicole’s death a homicide, a grand jury indicted Chaffier for first-degree murder.
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A New Castle County jury found him guilty of murder and stalking, a G-felony, on March 13. At Friday‘s sentencing, Judge Paul Wallace sentenced Chaffier to life in prison for the murder plus two years for the stalking charge.
“It is the court’s intent that Mr. Chaffier never see the light of day,” Wallace said as he handed down the sentence.
Delaware does not have parole, meaning that barring any successful appeal or a sentence commutation, Chaffier will die in prison.
Judge: A ‘malignant narcissist’ with a sinister background
Though much of Friday’s sentencing centered on the impact Nicole’s murder had on her loved ones, Milecki also emphasized Chaffier’s prior violent history with women.
Though he was only convicted of two intimate partner violence-related crimes prior to his March murder conviction, Milecki said women dating as far back as his time at Pennsylvania State University have come forward with stories about the man.
In 2007, Milecki said, Chaffier was charged with stalking a college girlfriend. At the time, a protection from abuse order was issued, which Milecki said he violated. The former girlfriend also told prosecutors he strangled her.
In 2015, he was again charged with stalking – and later convicted – after an ex-girlfriend found Chaffier peering into her window. He continued to harass her, Milecki said, including by breaking into her apartment.
Four years later, Chaffer strangled another girlfriend during an argument, holding her against the wall, Milecki said. While that woman didn’t report the incident to police, he was later found to have her account passwords and even her shoe size written down.
Then in the beginning of 2020, Chaffier began dating another woman, Amanda, whom he also repeatedly stalked after she attempted to end their relationship. She also did not formally report the incidents to police, but later told detectives and prosecutors, as well as a Delaware Online/The News Journal reporter, that Chaffier was sexually violent with her.
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Delaware Online/The News Journal does not typically identify victims of sexual violence and is choosing to identify Amanda only by her first name.
Milecki said on Friday that Chaffier’s three stalking arrests, as well as the incidents that were not formally reported to police at the time they occurred, “show a clear increase in the severity in the number of victims” and the severity of his conduct.
She added that all incidents prior to Nicole’s murder were “alarmingly similar to facts presented at trial.”
“The defendant always escalates,” Milecki said. “The defendant is a risk to the community, and specifically women.”
As Wallace, the judge, addressed Chaffier, he agreed with Milecki, noting the 37-year-old’s refusal to accept responsibility for the murder. Chaffier’s attorneys said on Friday that he maintains his innocence.
Calling Chaffier a “malignant narcissist,” Wallace said the man’s “own feeling of worth is so incredible to view women as disposable.”
That, the judge said, is “exactly” how Chaffier treated Nicole, a doting mother, supportive friend, loving daughter and teacher of children with special needs.
As Nicole’s family dabbed their eyes and embraced one another from the courtroom benches, Wallace commended them for their “grace” during the trial and sentencing.
Finally, just before imposing Chaffier’s life sentence, he reminded them of who Nicole was:
“It’s not really about the women, it’s about him,” Wallace said of Chaffier. “They become nothing to him, but Nicole was not nothing.”
Got a tip? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com or 302-324-2785. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_
