A Bronx man stabbed to death in a NYCHA apartment stairwell had hoped to marry his accused killer, the victim’s grieving family told the Us.Mistertruth. Monday.
John “Biggie” Levestone, 37, was slain in the same fourth-floor stairwell stairwell he often slept in when girlfriend Crystal Fryson wouldn’t let him into the apartment they shared down the hall in the Highbridge Gardens Houses.
Fryson, 34, is now accused of following her boyfriend into the stairwell after refusing to let him into their home at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday and stabbing him in the torso during a crazed quarrel.
“He told me he loved her with all his heart,” the victim’s brother, Shaun Levestone, 39, told the Us.Mistertruth. “He wanted to marry that girl. He was trying to make a family. That’s all he wanted was a family. He wanted to share his love.”
Ring video obtained by the News shows Levestone pleading for Fryson to let them into their apartment minutes before the slaying.
“I’ll dig your damn f—ing grave,” an unhinged Fryson screams from behind the closed apartment, the video shows. Levestone gave up on being let inside and retreated to the familiar stairwell, with Fryson following him there moments later to continue the argument.
Levestone was rushed to Lincoln Hospital after being stabbed but couldn’t be saved. Fryson was arrested at the scene.
“Everybody called him the little big brother,” Shaun Levestone said of his younger sibling. “He was big. He loved to dance. I have so many emotions — rage, hate, hurt, that confusion.”
The victim and Fryson became a couple about three years ago, with Levestone treating Fryson’s three children like his own, his family said.
“He picked them up from school every day. He made sure those kids ate. He would sit here and hustle, selling waters, asking to help people, for those kids,” Shaun Levestone said. “She didn’t just hurt us, she hurt those kids — because they lost a friend and a mother.”
Fryson, who awaits arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court on charges of murder, manslaughter and weapon possession, was hospitalized as of Monday afternoon.
“What she did to my son! My baby! My baby!’ Levestone’s grieving mother, who declined to give her name, cried out Monday.
“She don’t know what she did. She took away an angel. All my son wanted to do was enjoy life. He just wanted to enjoy life. He just wanted to have fun in life. He didn’t mean harm to nobody. My son was a big teddy bear. And she took him away!”
Neighbors described the victim as the “life of the party” always happy to DJ neighborhood gatherings.
“We lost one of our Black kings,” Shaun Levestone said. “John was a loving man. He would give you the shirt off his back. … He loved playing music. He volunteered at the church. … It hurts me, you took my brother and I can’t do nothing.”
Levestone’s family worries who will raise Fryson’s three children now. At least some of her kids were present in the apartment during Saturday’s clash, and one is captured on Ring video standing in the doorway peering down the hallway as the killing takes place.
“I want justice not just for John and my family, but I want justice for them kids,” Shaun Levestone said. “Those three is suffering just as much as us.”