NEWS

Skipjack’s Seafood owner gets a year in jail

Vanessa Junkin
vjunkin@dmg.gannett.com
John Crockett

The owner of Skipjack’s Seafood was sentenced to a year in jail Thursday after being convicted of reckless endangerment.

John Crockett, 46, of Salisbury was charged following a Dec. 14 incident in which police said he shot at his wife at the business, on Old Ocean City Road in Salisbury.

On Thursday in Wicomico County Circuit Court, he entered an Alford plea to reckless endangerment, court records show. With an Alford plea, a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but concedes there could be enough evidence for a conviction.

The other charges against him, including attempted murder, were dismissed.

He also has four years hanging over his head as a suspended sentence, and he’ll be on supervised probation for five years, court records state. His sentence begins at 5 p.m. Friday, July 24,  and the court would be OK with work release, according to court records.

Pamela Crockett told police she had tried to get a hold of her husband, John Crockett, by phone, and when she wasn’t able to, she went to Skipjack’s Seafood to get money for Christmas shopping, charging documents state.

She found another woman upstairs in a bedroom and office area, and the Crocketts got into a verbal argument, charging documents state.

Pamela Crockett began to leave after John Crockett told her to, and he then grabbed a shotgun and discharged it, according to charging documents. She was not struck, police said.

vjunkin@dmg.gannett.com

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