Homicide details released; victim's mom preaches forgiveness

By Ethan Smith

Leader Staff

It was an almost surreal scene that took place in Arlee the night of May 29, as investigators and the county attorney's office outlined the details surrounding the murder of Tasheena Craft in court documents filed this week.

Kelly (Stanfield) Birmingham was formally arraigned this morning, June 14, charged with deliberate homicide, two counts of tampering with evidence, one count of tampering with a witness, and two counts of attempting to escape, all felony charges, after being held without bond since his arrest early on the morning of May 29.

According to court documents filed Monday, Chance Crowder, the boyfriend of Craft's sister, awoke in the middle of the night, only to find Birmingham dragging Craft's lifeless body out of the house.

According to the statement Crowder gave investigators, Birmingham was crying and told Crowder he was going to prison for life, and that "I kept hitting her and hitting her."

After taking Craft's body outside to a small pick-up truck, Birmingham returned and allegedly told Crowder he was going to "bleach" a room downstairs where the murder allegedly took place. He then told Crowder to make sure Craft's sister, Shayla Cote, didn't wake up, and told Crowder to go back upstairs.

Crowder told investigators he could hear Birmingham downstairs, and that he waited until Birmingham left before waking Cote up to tell her what had happened.

At first, Cote thought Crowder had been dreaming, but when she went downstairs and couldn't locate her sister, she called 911 at about 3:20 a.m. Crowder kept telling Cote "he took her" over and over again, according to court documents.

When Sheriff's deputies and Tribal officers came to the house, they found a visibly shaken Crowder and Cote, and interviewed them both. Downstairs in the house, they found what appeared to be blood stains, and noticed that bedding had been removed, too. Cote also told them she found bleach on the floor when she went to look for her sister.

The officers were able to locate the pick-up truck at Birmingham's house off Hwy. 93, just south of Arlee, inside Missoula County, at about 6:45 that morning.

The house and the pick-up truck had belonged to Birmingham's father, Wayne Stanfield, who was killed in a motorcycle accident the weekend before, and Birmingham was living there.

According to court documents, the officers noticed a bottle of bleach and a pink slipper in the back of the truck. They detained Birmingham in the house, and got permission to search the residence. However, Birmingham declined to let them search the pick-up, saying it had belonged to his father.

About an hour later, Tribal officers located Craft's body on Arlee Pines Road, wrapped in a blanket, with a pink slipper on one of her feet. The slipper matched the one found in the back of the pick-up truck, court documents state, and Birmingham was interviewed a short time later at a makeshift holding area at the Arlee Fire Hall.

While he was being questioned by detectives Mike Sargeant and Dan Yonkin, he allegedly jumped up and tried to escape, but was caught and restrained. They then decided to transport him to the county jail.

"After answering several questions, the defendant told the detectives they were nice guys and he was sorry," the affidavit states.

Birmingham then jumped up and ran towards the door to the fire hall, where the detectives caught him, and they decided to transfer him to a more secure holding area at the county jail.

En route to the jail, Birmingham apologized to deputy Levi Read "for the trouble he was going to cause Deputy Read" and with that, kicked out the back window of his patrol vehicle and jumped head-first out onto Hwy. 93, court documents state. Read was able to catch Birmingham almost immediately, and then transported him to St. Patrick hospital for treatment.

The charges of witness and evidence tampering stem from Birmingham's alleged instructions to Crowder in which he told him not to tell anyone what he saw, and from moving Craft's body and attempting to cover up evidence at the scene.

Birmingham was in a wheelchair for much of last week, after suffering severe road rash down his entire back, and was ordered held without bond by Justice of the Peace Chuck Wall after a brief court appearance via video camera from a holding cell.

Birmingham allegedly told investigators Craft made a disparaging remark about his father, which set him off. The cause of Craft's death was listed as "homicidal violence" including "probable ligature strangulation," according to officials at the state crime lab who examined her body.

However, Craft's mother, Diana Cote, disputed that, saying Craft didn't know Birmingham or even his father.

While Craft's boyfriend, Tyler Vale, was friends with Birmingham, Craft had never met him prior to that night, her mother said.

"She didn't know him at all, and didn't even know he had a dad. She had never met him before," Cote said.

District court judge Kim Christopher scheduled Birmingham's arraignment for 7 a.m., because she had a trial already scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday.

Meanwhile, Craft's family accepted an honorary diploma for her at a high school graduation ceremony last Friday in Spokane, where she had been living with her brother (see story below).

Craft spent much of her life in Arlee, where she had many friends and family, and had returned to the area to visit Vale, who was on leave from serving in Iraq, her mother said.

Birmingham's mother, Jane Stanfield, traveled to California last week to help settle her father's estate after he died in January.

She said Birmingham got plenty of love and support at home, but that her son had anger management issues growing up.

"We tried to get him help for those anger issues. But I really do think his father's death affected him," she said.

She said she wanted to contact Craft's family to tell them she was sorry, but was told to give them some time to grieve.

"I'm sorry, I feel for them. If I had a choice I would be sitting on their side of the courtroom. But he's my son, I love him dearly, I just don't really know what happened," Stanfield said.

Victim's mother says 'I can forgive but I can't forget'

By Ethan Smith

Leader Staff

Despite her daughter's brutal murder, Diana Cote is preaching forgiveness for the man accused of the crime.

Cote and the rest of Tasheena Craft's family are trying to focus on the positive things in life right now, like getting an education and the healing power of forgiveness. Both were evident last week, as Cote and other family members traveled to Spokane to receive honorary diplomas commemorating what would have been Craft's graduation from high school last Friday.

Craft, who was 18, attended both Medicine Wheel Academy and Havermale High School in Spokane, and both schools gave her diplomas last week, Cote said.

"She got what she wanted to do — get her diploma. Her message to other kids was 'Go for the diploma,'" Cote said. "She really believed in education."

Craft also attended Two Eagle River before moving to Spokane, and had lots of friends and family in the Arlee area.

The graduation ceremony at Medicine Wheel was very positive, despite the somber occasion, Cote said. Students played a drum song that Craft had written earlier in the year.

"They sang that song as the graduates marched in, and then they had a slide show with all her activities," Cote said. "There was an empty chair there [among the other graduates], and instead of a tassel they had an eagle feather on her cap."

Cote said she's focusing on the positive things about Craft's life, and all that she accomplished.

"It just made me proud to know that she had been doing a lot of positive things in her life," Cote said. "

Perhaps most importantly, Craft was a forgiving person, and Cote is drawing strength from that to try to forgive Kelly Birmingham, the 19-year-old man accused of killing Craft.

"It's hard to forgive, but I have to do that. I believe in the Creator, and my daughter believed in forgiveness. She always loved everybody, and had a real forgiving heart," Cote said.

Meanwhile, Cote is dealing with her own life, including moving out of the house she lived in, where Craft was murdered. Cote was facing eviction proceedings prior to Craft's death, but she said once Tribal housing officials found out about the murder, they gave her a six-month extension, hoping to give her time to regroup.

But living in the house where her daughter was murdered is too depressing, Cote said, so she's staying with a son in Missoula. A family friend donated a trailer to her, but it doesn't have electricity or water hook-up, so Cote is using it primarily to store her family's possessions, as she tries to move forward with her life.

Cote blames herself in part for Craft's murder, saying she went to the trailer to pick up some items that night, in preparation for her eviction, or else she would have been there.

"I gave her a hug, and told her I loved her," she said of the last time she saw Craft.

When she returned early the next morning, she said she saw law enforcement vehicles parked in front of the house, and just assumed it was part of the eviction process. Only then did she learn her daughter's body had been found a few miles away.

She said Craft didn't know Birmingham at all, contrary to prior reports. She said she has resentment toward his family, saying a turbulent childhood was probably a big factor. She said Craft not only didn't know Birmingham, but didn't know his father, nor would she have said anything negative about his death.

But Cote emphasized she's trying not to get caught up in the hate, but forgiveness. It's what Craft would have preached, she said.

"I can forgive, but I can't forget," Cote said. "She wanted to be a mother, but now she can't. She had her whole life ahead of her."