Crystal Howell, Teen Jailed for Killing Father, Speaks Out for First Time
- Crystal Howell shot and killed her father, Michael Howell, while he was sleeping in 2014 and hid his body in a shed.
- She pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.
- She is telling her story for the first time in a 10-part podcast series, Killing Dad: A First-Degree Mistake.
A woman serving a life sentence for killing her father when she was a teenager is telling her story for the first time.
Crystal Howell was 17 when she shot her father, Michael Howell, as he slept in his eight-bedroom cabin in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, in February 2014.
Prosecutors said she hid his body in a plastic bin in the family's storage shed, where her friends discovered it a month later.
They described Howell as a callous killer, who had her friends move into her father's sprawling home, spent his money, hosted drug-fueled parties and even installed a stripper pole in the kitchen while his body remained in the shed.
When his remains were discovered, she fled to Georgia but was arrested in a motel. Two years later, she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.
She never spoke at her sentencing hearing. Now 26, Howell has told her story to journalists Melissa McCarty and Kelly McLear for a 10-part podcast series, Killing Dad: A First-Degree Mistake.
Speaking to them from behind bars, she denied plotting her father's murder.
"I never sat there and thought about killing anyone or hurting anyone," she says in the podcast's first episode, provided exclusively to Newsweek.
"It happened so fast that there was no thinking... it was basically like an impulse."
She also said people "wanted to believe the worst" about her.
"They wanted to believe it was for money or because I wanted to go out and hang out with my buddies," she said. "It's like they wanted to believe that because it makes it easier to put a child in prison for the rest of their lives if it's for something like that. They don't want to believe that I tried to reach out for help and nobody was listening."
The podcast— from studio Audio Up and set for release on April 5—delves into Howell's childhood and asks listeners to decide whether she deserves the lengthy sentence she is currently serving, with the hosts noting that there is no nationwide standard when it comes to the sentencing of teenagers who commit murder.
Listeners will also hear from the friends who moved into the house and discovered Michael Howell's body—and about a previously unknown accomplice who allegedly helped dispose of it.
Update 3/30/23, 2:20 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add a photo.
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