Maggie Valley woman pleads guilty to killing her father.
A Maggie Valley woman charged with killing her father in 2014 pleaded guilty Monday in Haywood County Superior Court.
Crystal Brooke Howell, 20, appeared in court, where she was convicted of first-degree murder and concealment of death and failure to report a death not from natural causes, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
She received 60 to 84 months in prison for the second charge, followed by a minimum of 25 additional years for the murder charge before she can apply for a parole hearing.
Howell shot her father, Michael Joseph Howell, 50, in the head with a shotgun while he was napping on Feb. 24, 2014. Michael Howell’s body was found by house guests about a month later on the family’s property in the Sheepback Mountain community near Maggie Valley.
His body had been placed inside a plastic container in the family’s storage shed.
Crystal Howell fled the state after she hid her father’s body and was found in Richmond County, Georgia. She was in possession of her father’s Land Rover and a U-Haul trailer full of items.
“Miss Howell had previously told her friends that her father had killed himself,” Assistant District Attorney Jeff Jones said. “She then started to drive his car and spend
his money. She had her friends move in, had a drug-fueled party and even had a stripper pole installed in the kitchen.”
During the court hearing, Crystal Howell’s attorney Bridgett Aguirre told the court her client had a mental health history.
The state argued that Crystal Howell planned her crime and then covered it up.
“The evidence in this case is that Miss Howell, who had just been caught shoplifting at Ingles with her father that day, came home and thought about killing
her dad while she showered. Afterwards, she executed him while he slept on the couch,” Jones said.
Crystal Howell hid the body, dumped the couch and sold the shotgun to cover her tracks, Jones added.
District Attorney Ashley Welch said the act was shocking.
“But the fact that Howell then began to spend her father’s money, use his house and drive his car – all after hiding his body and the evidence of her crime – that’s the motive. She wanted to live on her terms at the expense of Michael Howell’s life. It’s very sad,” she said.
Michael Howell was a former Columbia County News-Times sports editor in Augusta, Georgia.
The Haywood County sheriff’s office, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and state crime lab were involved in the investigation.
“Detective Scott Robinson and Special Agent Casey Drake sewed this case up for us when they interviewed Miss Howell in Georgia and got a confession. These officers and their agencies did an outstanding job in every way,” Welch said.
Crystal Howell will serve her sentence in the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections.
Crystal Howell, 20, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, and concealment of death and failure to report a death in Haywood County Superior Court Monday October 9, 2016.
