Brandon Marto thought he and the woman he considered to be his wife had taken every safety measure.

When Christi Spicuzza went out to drive for Uber, she would call or text him at least once an hour, he told a jury Monday.

He installed a dashboard camera — with both inside- and outside-facing cameras — they believed would act as a deterrent for would-be criminals.

They even had a coded conversation they would use if Spicuzza’s passengers made her feel unsafe.

But on the night of Feb. 10, 2022, none of that mattered.

Spicuzza, 38, of Turtle Creek, a mother of four, was killed around 10:20 p.m., police said, by a man she’d picked up as a fare.

Some of her last moments were captured on that dashcam. The footage, expected to be played for the jury later in the trial, shows Spicuzza pleading with her masked attacker, telling him she has a family and asking, “Why are you doing this?”

Calvin Crew, 24, of Pitcairn is charged with criminal homicide, robbery, kidnapping, tampering with evidence and carrying a firearm without a license.

Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty in the case but withdrew notice to do so just days before jury selection started last month.

The trial began Monday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court before Judge Edward J. Borkowski. It is expected to continue through the week.

Saying a prayer

Marto was called as the prosecution’s first witness.

He told the jury he and Spicuzza had been together for 12 years. The evening she disappeared, he said, Marto walked her out to the garage. He cleaned the windows of the rented Nissan Sentra she drove for Uber, wiped down the chrome — she took pride in her five-star rating, he testified — and said goodbye.

“We always said a prayer before she left the garage,” he said.

The two spoke that night at 8:59 p.m., and Spicuzza told him she had to pick up a passenger in Pitcairn.

“How did that call end up?” asked Deputy District Attorney Emma Schoedel.

“‘Love you,’” Marto responded.

It was the last time he spoke to her.

Usually, he continued, Spicuzza would return between midnight and 2 a.m. That evening, Marto fell asleep around 9:30 p.m. with their kids, and when he awoke at 1 a.m., Spicuzza wasn’t home. He texted her, but she didn’t respond.

Marto fell back asleep, and when he woke up around 4 a.m., she still wasn’t home and wasn’t answering her phone.

He called 911, checked local hospitals, the jail and the morgue. He and Spicuzza’s family posted on social media that she was missing.

But it wasn’t until two days later, when an Amazon delivery driver spotted her body in the woods — about 60 feet off of Rosecrest Drive in Monroeville — that Spicuzza was found.

She had a gunshot wound to the back of her head.

When police arrived, Spicuzza’s cellphone, car and car keys were missing. Her car was later found in Pitcairn with her purse still on the front seat, Schoedel said.

Her phone and dashboard camera were recovered separately, Schoedel said, through pure luck.

A man found Spicuzza’s cellphone 240 feet below the Westinghouse Bridge that carries Route 30 across the Turtle Creek valley. The dashboard camera was found in Penn Hills.

Both still worked, Schoedel said. Police were able to use the electronics to track Spicuzza’s last hours working, as well as the last passenger in her car — all pointing to Crew.

“The last thing you will see is Crew take out the dashboard camera and throw it out the window,” Schoedel told the jury. “Christi was robbed, and she was kidnapped, and she was marched into the woods and murdered.”

‘Race is a factor’

Defense attorney Andy Howard told the jury in his opening statement the prosecution has no evidence of first-degree murder.

“There is no proof for specific intent to kill to get first degree — that Calvin Crew consciously decided he wanted Ms. Spicuzza to die and that he pulled the trigger to make that happen.”

If the jury finds evidence Crew was the perpetrator that night, he said, Spicuzza was killed during the commission of a violent robbery, making it second-degree murder.

“It is still murder, but it is not intentional, pre-meditated murder,” Howard said. “Intentional murders don’t tend to be so sloppy.”

In Pennsylvania, both first- and second-degree murder carry a mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole. However, there is currently pending before the state Supreme Court a case challenging that sentence for second-degree, or felony, murder.

Throughout his opening, Howard told the jury there were social, political and racial motives that guided the investigation into Spicuzza’s death.

“I am afraid for Calvin,” he said. “Race is a factor here. A white woman allegedly killed by a young, Black man.”

Howard told the jurors District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. used the case to further his political agenda when he ran for election in 2023.

Schoedel immediately objected, which was sustained by the judge.

Howard continued, “It furthers a racial narrative the detectives wanted to promote.”

He urged the jurors not to allow emotional stories to inflame their emotions.

“Be on the lookout for instances of confirmation bias,” he said. “You must resist being swept up in the emotion and tragedy of this case.”