Man beat woman to death before gas station robbery, Dallas police say

Dallas police have arrested a man accused of fatally beating a woman in early November.

Anthony Randle, 50, is accused of attacking 39-year-old Charity Crim, whom officers found bleeding in an alley early Nov. 1 while they were searching for Randle in connection with a gas station robbery.

Crim died Nov. 16 after more than two weeks at Parkland Memorial Hospital in critical condition.

Officers were called about 2:45 a.m. Nov. 1 to a hold-up call at the RaceTrac gas station in the 2500 block of Inwood Road, where a man — later identified as Randle — punched an employee in the head and stole cigarettes before fleeing, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Crim was found lying in an alley in the 5500 block of Maple Avenue, near the gas station. She was covered by a mattress and bleeding from “severe blunt force trauma,” police wrote in the affidavit.

Detectives later found video footage that captured the attack. Crim can be seen backing away from Randle, holding her hands and arms over her head in a protective stance, police said.

Randle gets hold of her and rams her head into a wall, then kicks and stomps her head on the ground, according to the police’s description of the footage.

After beating her for about a minute, Randle walks away and returns with a mattress. He stomps on her again, then covers her up with the mattress and “casually walks down the alley” toward the RaceTrac, police wrote in the affidavit.

Police said it appeared Randle attacked Crim just before robbing the gas station.

A witness told police Randle admitted he robbed the gas station and killed Crim, according to the affidavit.

The witness said that the night before the attack, he saw Crim and Randle together at a laundromat near the RaceTrac. Surveillance footage confirmed the witness’s account, according to the affidavit.

Police arrested Randle on Wednesday. He confessed to the slaying during an interview with detectives, police said.

He remained in the Dallas County jail Sunday on charges of murder and robbery. His bail is set at $600,000.