Motel Clerk Calls Blame for Escape Unfair : Aftermath: It was a scheduled wake-up call that alerted a murder suspect to arrival of police, he says. Accusations that he aided the youth have cost his job and ‘ruined’ him.

Former motel clerk Lloyd Crabtree said Saturday that his life has been “ruined” since the night 15-year-old murder suspect Peter Quinn Elvik checked into the Sea Lark Motor Hotel.

Crabtree, 38, who worked at the motel for four years, said he lost his job because police said he rang Elvik’s room about 3 a.m. on Sept. 1 to tip him off that police officers were on their way. Crabtree said the call was a wake-up call that had previously been entered into the motel’s computer.

The call came as police were approaching the room and it apparently gave the teen time to get away. His escape led to a daylong, countywide search. Elvik later was arrested near his mother’s home in Tustin. He has since been extradited to Nevada where he will be tried as an adult in the slaying of 63-year-old William Leon Gibson.

Crabtree said that when the teen-ager approached the motel office that night, just before 1 a.m., he was “calm and cool.” He said Elvik asked to rent a room for an hour but was told the cost would be the same for an entire night: $29. Crabtree said the 6-foot, 140-pound teen with a shaved head paid in cash and arranged for a wake-up call two hours later.

Crabtree, who has not been charged with a crime, said his only mistake that night was failing to ask Elvik for a second form of identification at check-in. He said the teen-ager produced a driver’s license that stated he was 18.

“Why would I try and help a criminal escape?” Crabtree asked during an interview Saturday. “I would have nothing to gain and everything to lose. I wouldn’t want to harbor a fugitive.”

Since the incident, Crabtree said, he has lost his job, can’t find another and is about to be evicted. He said he has not heard from his bosses at the motel since the incident and has been unable to land a job because of the notoriety of the case.

“How am I going to find another job if people think I’m aiding and abetting criminals?” said Crabtree. “One of the managers [at another motel] asked, ‘Hey, aren’t you the one who used to work at the Sea Lark?’ ”

Crabtree said he earned $1,200 a month from his job as a night clerk and had been planning to buy a home through a GI loan. Crabtree, a single parent who said he served in the U.S. Army, said he has applied for food stamps to feed his 9-year-old son and will have to move out of his apartment at the end of the month.

“I was a faithful employee for four years and never had any problems,” he said. “I feel like I’m getting the raw end of the stick for something I didn’t do. I should never have lost my job over this and should have had the support of the owner.”

The motel’s owner could not be reached Saturday and management at the motel declined to comment.