by Kate Shunney
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals last Wednesday denied an appeal filed by Andy McCauley, Jr. asking for his life sentence for the murder of Riley Crossman to be overturned.
Justices were unanimous in rejecting the three arguments in McCauley’s appeal. Justice Wooten delivered the opinion of the court in a 25-page document. 
Following his conviction at a 2022 trial held in Morgan County, McCauley was sentenced to life without mercy for murder, not less than 15 years to life for the death of a child by custodian by child abuse and not less than one nor more than five years for concealment of a deceased human body.
He was convicted of killing and hiding the remains of 13-year-old Riley Crossman, the teenage daughter of his girlfriend.
McCauley appealed his life sentence on arguments that Circuit Court Judge Debra McLaughlin made errors during his trial. He argued that she incorrectly denied a motion to change the location of the trial, allowed the jury to consider the evidence and testimony associated with a cadaver dog handler who found Crossman’s remains and allowed a jury verdict to proceed on what McCauley argued was “insufficient” evidence that he committed murder or that Crossman died while under his care as an adult custodian.
Supreme Court justices rejected all of these arguments and upheld Judge McLaughlin’s May 2023 sentencing.
In their opinion, justices noted the lengths that Judge McLaughlin and attorneys went to in order to ensure an impartial jury could be seated and the trial could be held in Morgan County.
Those steps included a media study, surveys of local residents about their familiarity with the case, arrangement of an extra-large jury pool from which to draw potential jurors and additional alternate jurors. Justices noted that 29 potential jurors were excused from serving due to potential conflicts.
“Thus, we conclude that the court did not abuse its discretion in denying petitioner’s motion for a change in venue,” the court wrote.
McCauley also challenged his sentence on the argument that evidence from a cadaver dog search should not have been allowed during his two-week trial. The cadaver dog’s handler, Brandy Eggeman, was admitted to the court as an expert witness based on her certification as a human remains detection dog handler and her professional credentials.
McCauley, in his appeal, questioned the “underlying science behind the ‘scent theory’ utilized by cadaver dogs”, according to court documents.
Eggeman testified during the murder trial that the cadaver dog had alerted to the presence of human remains on the green work truck that McCauley was known to have used on the day after Crossman’s disappearance.
During the course of the trial it was made clear through video evidence and other testimony that truck was used to transport Crossman’s deceased body from her home in Berkeley Springs to where her remains were later found on a wooded hillside in Berkeley County.
Supreme Court justices rejected McCauley’s argument that Eggeman’s expert testimony shouldn’t have been heard by the jury.
On his final appeal argument, McCauley claimed that “there was insufficient evidence to support his first-degree murder conviction, and that there was insufficient evidence of his relationship to R.C. to establish his conviction for death of a child by a custodian,” justices wrote in their opinion.
“Although petitioner argues the State failed to present direct, physical evidence in support of his conviction, there is substantial circumstantial evidence to support the verdict,” the justices wrote in their opinion.
The Supreme Court provided a list of evidence, in their 25-opinion, supporting a guilty verdict from the jury, including:
— McCauley’s erratic behavior overnight and on the morning of the day that Crossman was last heard from
— his actions in deleting messages from Crossman from his phone
— his attempts to contact an acquaintance looking for a place to stay the night Crossman is believed to have been killed
— changing his normal work schedule the morning of the day when Crossman is believed to have gone missing
— leaving his phone at home when he went to work
— using cocaine and then leaving his job site for several hours in the middle of the day
— taking contractor’s trash bags from his employer, driving the green work truck back to his residence in Berkeley Springs and being pulled over in that truck in the area where Crossman’s remains were found days later.
Justices cited other evidence in the victim’s bedroom that suggested she had been smothered – an act that by its nature involves premeditation, they pointed out.
Justices also rejected McCauley’s assertion that the nature of his relationship with the victim had not been established enough to convict him of death of a child by a parent, guardian or custodian by child abuse.
In the opinion, Supreme Court justices noted that evidence was presented to the jury that McCauley had been living with the victim’s mother for several years and they were both on the lease for the residence where the couple and children lived, and McCauley acted as the responsible adult for the children in the household.
In rejecting McCauley’s appeal and upholding his sentences, the court wrote:
“Petitioner’s final sufficiency of evidence argument is unavailing; accordingly we decline to disturb his conviction,
wrote Justice Wooten for the court.
The decision was filed in the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia on November 13.
