{"id":591150,"date":"2026-04-07T11:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591150\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:52:15","slug":"maree-mavis-crabtree-pleads-not-guilty-to-murdering-son-jonathan-with-spiked-fruit-smoothie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591150\/","title":{"rendered":"Maree Mavis Crabtree pleads not guilty to murdering son Jonathan with spiked fruit smoothie"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Gold Coast mother accused of killing her 26-year-old son by giving him a lethal fruit smoothie she made in a kitchen blender has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a Supreme Court jury trial began in Brisbane for Maree Mavis Crabtree, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder and attempted murder of Jonathan Crabtree in 2017.<\/p>\n

She also pleaded not guilty to attempted fraud to the value of $100,000 or more.<\/p>\n

The prosecution alleged Ms Crabtree “deliberately” gave her son a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs at their Maudsland home in July, 2017.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The prosecution alleges Maree Crabtree prepared a fruit smoothie spiked with oxycodone in a deliberate attempt to kill her son. (ABC News: Liz Pickering)<\/p>\n

During her opening address, Crown prosecutor Caroline Marco told the court Ms Crabtree had prepared a drink that contained the drug oxycodone, in the form of a shake, using a blender in the kitchen on July 18.<\/p>\n

The pathologist who examined Jonathan’s body determined that the cause of his sudden and unexpected death was an excessive amount of oxycodone, the court heard.<\/p>\n

The prosecution alleged Ms Crabtree called emergency services over concerns her son wasn’t breathing on the morning of July 19.<\/p>\n

Ms Marco told the court the operator over the phone asked Ms Crabtree to perform CPR, but she declined, stating she had a bad back and that she could not stay in the room with him “as she thought he was then dead”.<\/p>\n

She said when emergency services arrived, they found Jonathan “showing obvious signs that he had been dead for hours”.<\/p>\n

The prosecution alleged following Jonathan’s death, Ms Crabtree made a dishonest claim against his superannuation fund for a death benefit.<\/p>\n

‘Not the first time’<\/p>\n

Ms Marco said Jonathan’s younger sister Tara Crabtree would be called as a witness during the trial to tell the jury about their “mother’s plan to kill Jonathan”.<\/p>\n

“She will tell you that she helped her mother by keeping lookout as her mother prepared the drink, and after he drank it, hearing him struggling and coughing during the night,” Ms Marco said.<\/p>\n

“Tara will tell you the next morning her mother told her that Jonathan was dead, but it was not for hours later that she called triple-0,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Tara says that that was not the first time that her mother had given a drink to Jonathan containing oxycodone with the intent of ending his life.”<\/p>\n

\"Maree<\/p>\n

It’s alleged Ms Crabtree made a dishonest claim against Jonathan’s superannuation fund for a death benefit following his death. (Twitter: Maree Crabtree)<\/p>\n

Ms Marco said Tara would give evidence to the court that she saw her mother crushing up tablets in a milkshake in January, 2017 in the first alleged attempt.<\/p>\n

On the next alleged attempt, Ms Marco said Tara had watched her mother allegedly add medication and crushed pills along with pieces of fruit to a blender.<\/p>\n

She said Tara recalled a great quantity of the drug was allegedly poured into the drink on this occasion and that the fruit was added to disguise the smell of it.<\/p>\n

Family finances in ‘jeopardy’<\/p>\n

The prosecution told the jury at the time of Jonathan’s death he shared ownership of the house with Tara.<\/p>\n

Ms Crabtree also lived in the home, but her name was not on the title.<\/p>\n

Ms Marco said Ms Crabtree “insisted nonetheless that she had financially contributed to the building of the house”.<\/p>\n

“Together, they lived at the house, but not always peacefully,” she said.<\/p>\n

The court heard Jonathan was a “troubled young man” who “abused drugs”.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

The court heard Ms Crabtree told many people her son Jonathan was “difficult and abusive”. (Twitter: Maree Crabtree)<\/p>\n

“He’d been charged with an offence of robbery of a chemist, and as a result of a serious traffic accident in June, 2015, he was left with some permanent injuries and required physical care,” Ms Marco said.<\/p>\n

The charge had been referred to the mental health court but was discharged following his death.<\/p>\n

The prosecution said Ms Crabtree told many people Jonathan was “difficult and abusive”.<\/p>\n

“She told Tara that his involvement in the robbery had put their family’s finances in jeopardy, which was the reason why she needed to kill him,” Ms Marco said.<\/p>\n

She told the jury the main issue in the trial would be if they accepted the crown case, that the defendant, with the assistance of her daughter, caused Jonathan to take a dose of the drug that she prepared in a drink on the occasion of his attempted murder, and murder.<\/p>\n

Ms Marco told the jury Tara had been given an indemnity from prosecution by the Attorney General of Queensland and would not be prosecuted for her alleged role in Jonathan’s death.<\/p>\n

‘Do you believe Tara Crabtree’s story?’<\/p>\n

A defence lawyer for Ms Crabtree, Angus Edwards, asked the jury to consider her situation as a mother living with a “violent, suicidal, drug addict”.<\/p>\n

“We’d ask that you put the things that she said and the things she did in proper context and realistically assess what it would have been like for Maree Crabtree,” he said in his opening statement.<\/p>\n

“It’s tough being a parent”.<\/p>\n

Mr Edwards said it would not be disputed in the trial that Jonathan had a drug overdose.<\/p>\n

“Somehow those drugs got into him,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There is of course the possibility that Jonathan Crabtree, deliberately or accidentally, had an overdose of drugs to which he had access”.<\/p>\n

He said on the other hand, he could have been deliberately, or accidentally, given an overdose by his mother, or his sister, or a combination of the two.<\/p>\n

\"Maree<\/p>\n

The court heard Ms Crabtree refused to give Jonathan CPR as she had a bad back. (Flipagram: Maree Crabtree)<\/p>\n

Mr Edwards also asked the jury to consider whether they believed Tara’s accounts of the alleged incident, claiming she only came up with it more than two years after her brother’s death.<\/p>\n

“She’s the only person who says that her mother killed her brother,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That is the real issue in this trial. Do you believe Tara Crabtree’s story?”<\/p>\n

The first day of the trial concluded with the jury hearing Ms Crabtree’s call to Triple Zero on July 19.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to run for five weeks, hearing from about 60 witnesses including Tara Crabtree, neighbours, a pharmacist, and emergency services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Gold Coast mother accused of killing her 26-year-old son by giving him a lethal fruit smoothie she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1108,43,27329,288710,288709,2968,44,2472,701,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-591150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-court","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-homicide","11":"tag-jonathan-crabtree","12":"tag-maree-crabtree","13":"tag-murder","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-poison","16":"tag-queensland","17":"tag-top-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topnews","20":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}