Nurse testifies about how she found disabled boy trapped alone after mom, her boyfriend murdered

Syracuse, N.Y. — Nurse Norma Anne Fitzgerald texted the young mother to remind her she would be visiting the next day to check on her 6-year-old son, who had severe disabilities.

She had done that every week for more than five years, so when the mother did not reply, she thought nothing of it. The mom never missed a meeting.

The next day, Fitzgerald walked into the apartment at 3101 Burnet Ave. in Syracuse to find a horrific scene: the bodies of the mom, Alexis Sellin, and her boyfriend, Jamie Crawford. They both had been shot in the head.

She rushed into another room, looking for the 6-year-old boy, Markese Smalls Jr., terrified she would find him dead, too.

The little boy was alive but had been left alone in a bed he couldn’t get out of for around three days with the bodies in the next room.

Fitzgerald last week shared the emotional story of her Aug. 24, 2022 discovery as she testified in the murder trial of three men — LaShawn Dixon, 47, Donnell Thornton, 30, and Jamel Weston, 49. They are accused of killing Sellin and Crawford. Their trial continues this week.

Fitzgerald works for Nascentia Health as a case manager, nurse and home health aide. She has 52 years of nursing experience, previously serving as an army nurse and a trauma nurse. She first came to Syracuse as a travel nurse but stayed after falling in love with helping families take care of disabled children, she said.

She first began working with Markese when he was an infant. The boy had suffered a traumatic injury after his father shook him as a baby. As a result, Markese is blind, paraplegic and non-verbal. Fitzgerald said she visited Markese and his mom once a week for years.

Before each meeting, she would get Sellin a coffee or a hot chocolate. On Aug. 24, 2022, Fitzgerald texted Sellin asking which drink she would prefer that day. She got no answer.

She said it was unusual but not unheard of for Sellin to not answer her the day of a meeting. She described Sellin as a bright but complicated individual. She said Sellin could be loving and sweet one day and sullen the next.

Fitzgerald, 74, arrived for her scheduled visit around 3:30 p.m. and texted Sellin again, telling her that she had arrived with coffee. After a while, Fitzgerald said she began to think Sellin had fallen asleep.

She was able to get inside the usually locked outer door of the apartment building because residents were moving things in and out that afternoon, Fitzgerald said.

She went to the door of Sellin’s and Crawford’s apartment and began knocking. After no one answered, Fitzgerald began to worry. She said she worried Sellin might have overdosed. She banged on the door even louder and yelled for Sellin.

Fitzgerald said she felt comfortable enough with Sellin to try to open the door to see if she was alright. She tried the handle, and the door was unlocked.

As soon as she opened the door, she saw the bodies right in the doorway. She said she didn’t even recognize Sellin at first because she was so pale from blood loss and her face was “horribly damaged.” Crawford was just a few feet away from Sellin.

Fitzgerald said she knew Sellin was gone just by looking at her but needed to confirm by taking her pulse from her wrist. She said that the couple appeared to have been dead for several days based on their condition.

When she went to take Sellin’s pulse, she saw a bullet casing and knew immediately what had happened.

Fitzgerald got emotional on the witness stand Thursday as she recounted turning her attention to her patient, Markese.

“I had to go find Markese,” Fitzgerald told the jury through tears.

She knew that he stayed in the back bedroom of the home. She carefully moved through the home, not knowing if anyone responsible for Selin and Crawford’s murders could still be inside the apartments.

“I didn’t know what I was going to find. I was so terrified. I didn’t want to find him gone,” Fitzgerald said. “Your first thought is ‘I hope nobody is still here.’”

She found Markese in the middle of his bed, in the dark, lying in his own excrement. He was severely dehydrated and his heart rate was elevated to almost 160 beats per minute, she said.

She tearfully reminded the jury that he couldn’t call out or move the entire time he was alone in the apartment.

“I just picked him up and said, ‘Let’s get out of here,’” Fitzgerald said.

She carried Markese into the hall where she called 911. She told the dispatchers that Sellin and Crawford were beyond help but Markese needed medical attention.

The first police officers arrived within about 30 seconds. Officer Darrin Ettinger found a distraught Fitzgerald sitting just outside the apartment, cradling Markese in her arms.

Fitzgerald said that Markese made a full recovery from the dehydration he suffered while he was trapped in the home. She said no one will ever know what he suffered mentally and emotionally.

She said she can only imagine the stress he felt after possibly hearing what happened to his mother, going without food and without being changed for days.

She told the jury that she entered trauma therapy after the incident. Markese will never have that chance due to his physical and mental limitations, she said.