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The court recently heard shocking revelations surrounding a man’s death, where his mother allegedly played a sinister role by slipping prescription drugs into his fruit smoothie. This comes after it was revealed that he had struggled with drug use in the years before his tragic demise.
The 59-year-old woman faces serious charges, including the attempted murder of her son earlier in the same year as his death.
Last week, the defense lawyer representing Crabtree presented an argument that suggested Jonathan may have accidentally or intentionally overdosed on his medication.
In today’s proceedings at the Brisbane Supreme Court, testimony was provided by Rebekah Millard, who was in a relationship with Jonathan for 18 months, beginning in 2012.
Defense barrister Angus Edwards questioned Millard, asking, “About eight months into your relationship, did he experience a drug overdose?”
Millard said Jonathan always had the prescription drug tramadol but never mentioned another painkiller called oxycodone.
The jury previously heard a pathologist determined the cause of Jonathan’s death was an excessive amount of the drug oxycodone in his bloodstream.
Edwards asked if Jonathan said he had taken the overdose as he “could not handle it anymore”.
Millard said she could not recall but agreed she had told a previous court hearing that Jonathan gave that explanation.
She agreed Jonathan had wild mood swings and always threatened to kill himself.
“When around friends he was the happy-go-lucky Jonathan but when it was just us it was a different story,” she said.
Jonathan was a “troubled man” with abusive behaviours who had been charged with robbing a chemist, the jury heard.
A car crash in 2015 had left him with permanent injuries requiring physical care.
Crabtree lived in a house with Jonathan and his sister Tara.
Crabtree had said before Jonathan’s death that he was “eating her out of house and home” and had the “brain capacity of a six-year-old,” the Crabtrees’ neighbour Vicki Inglis testified today.
“Jonathan had ownership of the house and she could not get him out of there,” Inglis said Crabtree had told her during conversations between the car crash and his death.
Inglis was the latest of multiple witnesses to testify that Crabtree talked about giving Jonathan drugs.
“Marie said ‘I should put something in one of his syringes?’”crown prosecutor Caroline Marco asked.
“Yes. On a number of occasions over a number of months,” Inglis said.
Crabtree made the remarks while talking about seeing Jonathan shooting up drugs in his bedroom, the jury heard.
“Did she say the reason to put something in his syringe was to harm him or do him some harm?” Edwards asked.
The trial is due to run for another four weeks before Justice Martin Burns and hear from dozens more witnesses.