The family of a Northern Virginia woman charged with fatally shooting her husband says she fired in self-defense, and in court this week, the woman’s defense attorney presented messages her family says came from the husband threatening to burn down the house.
The defendant’s mother is convinced her daughter was protecting the family.
“Self-defense,” Marilyn Martin said. “Completely self-defense.”
Her daughter LaToya Crabbe is in jail charged with second-degree murder.
She married Curtis Crabbe in 2019, and they raised three young children together living in the lower level of her parent’s Manassas home. LaToya Crabbe has a Ph.D. in pharmacology and works for the U.S. Public Health Service.
But she and Curtis Crabbe recently separated, her mother said. Her daughter asked for a divorce and for her husband to move out. A notice placed on the door Oct. 9 gave him 30 days to leave.
“He just set down just to announce to us that he was going to give up and was going to leave,” Martin said.
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But two days before the fatal shooting last week, while LaToya Crabbe was away in New York City, she received a text message from her husband saying, “Stop f------ with me and answer my call or I’m going to go to the house and punch your mother in the face,” according to Martin.
He went on, “Toya, I’m not playing around. A will hurt everyone in that house then set it on fire. Answer my mother------ call right now or I’m headed to the crib.”
And, “I’m headed there right now and I’m taking the kids. You will never see them.”
Martin says her daughter immediately forwarded the texts to warn her.
But her daughter called back and said her husband calmed down.
Then two days later, he went to the house unexpected, Martin said, and joined her daughter downstairs. Martin said she began to get worrisome text messages.
“The texts I was uncomfortable with where it was like she was held hostage,” Martin said. “She couldn’t talk, so she was texting.”
With the three children napping on the second floor, Martin left on an errand and received a stunning call from her daughter.
“She indicated to me she had shot him,” Martin said.
“She was just very hysterical, and it took me aback, and I was trying to gather myself," she said. "So, I told her I’m coming home. I’ll call the police.”
Latoya Crabbe surrendered to police. A police search of the bedroom where her husband had been killed found a gun and knife.
“The fact it got to the point where she had to use her gun on another person,” Martin said.
“In her mind, she was stopping a murder of the whole family,” she said. “I know that’s what she was doing.”
LaToya Crabbe’s defense attorney presented the threatening messages to a judge earlier this week, seeking bond, but the judge turned down the request.
“I’m hoping she gets bond,” her mother said. “Her children need her.”
News4 contacted the victim’s brother, but he said the family had been advised not to comment. An obituary describes Curtis Crabbe as a dedicated family man and avid outdoorsman.
A hearing is set for Nov. 21.
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