Tylor Crippen’s family, friends speak in court about deadly stabbing in Modesto park

Violet Crippen Hachey stood in a Stanislaus County courtroom on Tuesday and raised a silver, heart-shaped box containing her son’s ashes.

“This is what I have left of my son,” she told the three young men convicted of killing Tylor Crippen.

Taylor Koplen, Jacob Segura and Juan Garcia are scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 9. On Tuesday morning, Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Dawna Reeves gave Crippen’s family and friends an opportunity to speak about the impact of his death.

About a dozen people got up and spoke in court, several wearing T-shirts with a design created by Crippen’s girlfriend, Brittany Waldo, and a quote from Crippen: “Don’t let the bad people bring a good person down.”

Though the 18-year-old Crippen was shy and quiet, friends said, he had the kind of personality that made you want to befriend him: sweet, kind and always helpful.

He had hopes of becoming a nurse, because that’s what he wanted to do with his life – help others.

Instead of talking to Crippen, one friend lamented, they have to talk about him. Instead of hanging out with him, they have to visit a memorial tree and pretend that’s enough.

His friends fought back tears in court as they told a judge they will never see Crippen again because three young men tried to rob him and chased him into an east Modesto park. Crippen was stabbed as he tried to escape into the park, screaming in pain as he eventually bled to death.

“Tylor didn’t deserve to die that way,” said Waldo, who was with Crippen on Jan. 29, 2013, when the stabbing occurred.

Crippen Hachey asked the defendants, “Did your parents know where you were that night? Did they even care?”

The defendants did not speak during Tuesday’s hearing. They sat stoically behind their attorneys. Koplen and Garcia, both minors when the stabbing occurred, were prosecuted as adults. Segura was 18 when Crippen was attacked.

“I hope you feel the same pain my son felt when you stabbed him and watched him bleed to death,” Crippen’s mother told the defendants.

Prosecutors say Koplen stabbed Crippen when the three defendants tried to steal the victim’s cellphone.

Crippen Hachey has half of her son’s ashes. The other half are in an urn belonging to Carlos Serrano, Crippen’s father. When Crippen’s parents split up, he told his mother that he wanted to live with his dad. Serrano said his son felt that he had to be around to help him.

Throughout his high school years, Crippen would wake up his dad, who had to work an overnight shift. The teenager then would make some lunch for Serrano to take to work. Serrano recalled that in court Tuesday while explaining what a kind and respectful young man his son was.

The night he was killed, Crippen asked his dad if he could take his girlfriend out for an evening stroll around Creekwood Park, near Johansen High School. Just before he left, Crippen asked Serrano, “At what time do I have to wake you up?”

“My son never came home because three thugs decided they were going to stab him for a cellphone,” Serrano said in court. He asked the judge to sentence the defendants to the maximum term in prison.

In the trial, Waldo testified that three males approached them as the couple were kissing. One male with a long ponytail asked the couple if they had any cigarettes, she said. The couple said no, that they didn’t smoke. Then, the long-haired man punched Crippen in his back, Waldo testified.

She told the jury that Crippen ran into the street in a zigzag motion to get away from his attacker, then the other two males started chasing him. She said the long-haired man stayed with her and brandished a knife, demanding her belongings.

As he ran away, Crippen yelled at the trio to leave his girlfriend alone. Crippen ran into the park, but they continued to chase him, according to the testimony. The prosecution said Crippen was trying to lure the attackers away from his girlfriend.

On Tuesday, Waldo said she lives each day in fear. She’s too afraid to visit the memorial tree planted at Creekwood Park in Crippen’s honor. The memory of him screaming in pain is still vivid in her mind.

“This pain doesn’t numb,” Waldo told the defendants, who were sitting a few feet away from her inside the courtroom. “You broke something inside me, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fix it.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Tylor Crippen’s family, friends speak in court about deadly stabbing in Modesto park."