The Buncombe County pretrial services worker assigned to monitor Ryan Ricky Houston — a Weaverville man who committed one of Western North Carolina’s most horrific crime sprees a year ago — was in a romantic relationship with him, according to the attorneys representing the estate of Houston’s murder victim in a federal lawsuit against the county.
Houston fatally stabbed his girlfriend, Malerie Crisp, on Aug. 1, 2024. The next day he died in a fiery car crash that also killed the newly retired Marshall police chief.
Houston was out on bond in connection with a May 2023 domestic violence episode that culminated in him shooting a Buncombe sheriff’s deputy…