Former Philly football standout Ahkil Crumpton gets life sentence after murder conviction

Ahkil Crumpton, a Philadelphia product and former West Catholic Prep football star who played two seasons for the storied University of Georgia Division-I football program, was convicted on state murder charges in Georgia earlier this week and received a life sentence without parole by Georgia Superior Court Judge Eric Norris.

Crumpton, 28, was already convicted in 2023 on all counts in a federal case related to the same 2021 fatal shooting of RaceTrac gas station attendant Elijah Wood, in Watkinsville, Georgia. Crumpton is serving a 30-year sentence in the federal case, and his federal sentence would run concurrently with the state sentence, meaning he would serve the longer, life sentence.

“We will definitely be appealing the conviction and the sentence,” said Crumpton’s Atlanta-based attorney in the state case, Bruce Harvey. “A sentence of life without parole - essentially death by incarceration - is manifestly unjust for a young, highly accomplished athlete, with no prior criminal history convicted of an unintentional killing. We are all hopeful that Ahkil may return to contribute to the community as exemplified by his life and the testimonials given at the sentencing (Thursday).”

Crumpton will be in state custody, Harvey said, and a court official said Crumpton is currently being held at the Georgia Department of Corrections.

» READ MORE: Philly’s Ahkil Crumpton was on a mission to make it in pro football. Then came the murder charges.

It has been a dramatic fall from grace for a player who dreamed of playing in the NFL one day, and who landed at Georgia by way of Los Angeles Valley junior college after graduating from West Catholic.

But despite playing for Georgia coach Kirby Smart – who had identified Crumpton in 2017 as the elite receiver the team needed – for two seasons, Crumpton never reached his goal of playing pro.

“[Crumpton] was on a mission to make it to the NFL. I think he was so hell-bent on playing professional football,” a former L.A. Valley football coach who worked with Crumpton and asked not to be named, told The Inquirer in a past interview. “When things didn’t go the way he had planned, I’m sure it probably broke him, and I’m sure there was a lot of disappointment.”

In 2021, Crumpton’s life was forever altered through his links to two homicide cases – one in Georgia and one in his native Philadelphia.

Wood was killed in March 2021. But after a months-long investigation into Wood’s killer involving multiple state and federal agencies stalled, it was a ballistics match that ultimately led to Crumpton’s arrest for Wood’s murder. A July 2021 homicide in Philadelphia, just four months after Wood’s murder, involved Crumpton. Authorities said Crumpton fired 13 shots at a man named Anthony Jones near a South Street diner in Philly. Jones died at the scene.

It wasn’t until a federal agent ran the ballistics on both the Wood homicide and the Jones homicide that authorities came up with a match, tying Crumpton to both murders. Crumpton’s criminal records pertaining to the Jones case were apparently expunged.

Crumpton was living with his former Georgia teammate Juwan Taylor in Georgia in 2021. Taylor later testified against Crumpton in the federal trial that Crumpton came to their apartment after the Wood shooting and was “holding the pistol and was visibly upset saying, ‘I didn’t mean to do it – I just wanted the money, I just shot him at the store,’ ” according to the Department of Justice press release after Crumpton’s federal sentencing.

This week, a Georgia state jury found Crumpton guilty on all six counts, including felony murder.

“(Crumpton) can appeal the conviction and the sentence. But (it’s a life sentence without parole) unless he’s pardoned by the governor, or the law changes, and he can be resentenced, like the Menendez brothers (Erik and Lyle),” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and now the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers. “Something has to change.”