Ohio Killer of 5 Vowed He Would Change

An Ohio man who killed himself yesterday—a day after police said he killed his wife, sister-in-law, and three children—told a judge in 2005 that he was ready to be a law-abiding citizen if he was released from prison. "I swear to you from the bottom of my heart that I 'WILL NOT' let you down. Let my family down. Let society down," Davon Crawford wrote. He had done time for voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault involving domestic violence.
 

In the note he apologizes for firing a gun in his home and says, "I made an insensible choice in a moment of anger that could have actually cost me my wife and children.” Crawford, 33, was divorced from his first wife about 3 months after writing the note; he married again recently, and his second wife was one of the shooting victims this week. 
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