A second-degree murder and firearms charges were dropped in the case of a Manassas mom who says she fatally shot her estranged husband in self-defense, but prosecutors intend to take their case to a grand jury Monday and seek a charge of first-degree murder.

Until then at least, LaToya Crabbe will remain free and with her family. She was released on bond last week after four months in jail. 

The unusual chain of events started when it became clear prosecutors were not ready to go to trial March 3 as scheduled. Crabbe’s defense attorneys accused them of acting in bad faith.

“They did nothing and all the while didn’t tell us that they weren’t going to proceed and let Ms. Crabbe — Dr. Crabbe, I should say — sit in that jail for four months with her three young children under age of 5 at home with grandparents,” attorney David Daugherty said.

Attorneys for Crabbe — a pharmacist and lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service before her arrest Oct. 21 — say Curtis Crabbe went after her with a knife. She says days earlier her husband had sent texts threatening to kill the family. 

Defense attorneys told the judge that with just two weeks until trial, prosecutors had not provided a witness list as required or even sent subpoenas to get witnesses to court. Prosecutors also said they still haven’t received forensic lab results.

Crabbe’s defense attorneys say if prosecutors had disclosed that earlier, Crabbe may have been released from jail earlier. 

“She was in there, and they wanted her to stay in there, and that’s why they didn’t want to move … to continue because they were worried that she was going to get out,” attorney Blake Weiner said.

Prosecutors pushed back. Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth told the judge, “Alleging the commonwealth did nothing is absurd … None of this has been in bad faith.”

In seeking a first-degree murder charge, prosecutors point to new evidence that Ring camera video was deleted shortly after the shooting.

Defense attorneys say they’ll be able to show Crabbe did not delete video.

Crabbe declined comment Thursday. Her mother said she’s happy to have her daughter at home but bracing for what’s coming. 

“We just waiting for the shoe to drop, for them to knock on the door to say they’re rearresting her,” Marilyn Martin said.

In the meantime, Crabbe will spend as much time as possible with her children.

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INDIANAPOLIS – One year ago, Adam Peters didn’t have a quarterback as he confronted his first offseason as general manager of the Washington Commanders. He didn’t even know what a “scrum” with the media meant. 

At his second scouting combine in the big chair he has discovered both, with Jayden Daniels the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year and Peters participating in his fair share of meetings with the media.  

He and head coach Dan Quinn will need answers for a second straight busy offseason, with 28 members of the 2024 roster set to become free agents, an elite wide receiver in Terry McLaurin poised for a contract extension and a defensive-line stalwart in Jonathan Allen given permission to explore a trade. 

Still, “it feels a lot better than last year,” Peters said Tuesday. 

Peters and Quinn have daily discussions about the best way to improve the team, especially in the wake of a first year that exceeded expectations and the turnaround from 4-13 to a 12-5 campaign, which ended with a loss to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game. 

“It’s going be a challenge every year,” Peters said. “Not just last year, not just this year, but next year’s going to be a new set of challenges.

“There was a lot we had to accomplish and I thought we did a really good job. And this year, I mean, we still have a lot of challenges, so having Jayden is great, obviously, but you still want to build the team the right way with the right type of people.” 

Entering this offseason knowing what a ‘Commander’ is

The most important thing Quinn knows now that he didn’t this time in 2024 is “the definition of a Commander.” At its core, that player possesses competitiveness and is a person who loves football and connecting with his teammates. 

That makes combine week more purposeful this time around because it’s no longer conjecture – they’ve seen what “a Commander” is in practice. 

“We’re looking forward to following up on that this year, especially now that we know who we are even more clearly,” Quinn said Wednesday.

Washington’s 2024 roster had 28 free agents but Quinn said he didn’t have a specific number of how many he wanted to bring back. But in his mind, there are two types of free agents as he considers who will be on his team in 2025 – the ones who were on the Commanders last year, and those on other teams. He said he’s also counting on the 2024 rookie class developing and making big jumps. 

Some took on significant roles during their first season – Daniels notwithstanding. Brandon Coleman, a third-round pick, became the starting left tackle and cornerback Mike Sainristil, a second-rounder, was a starter by the end of the season.  

To figure out the areas Washington will be active in player acquisition doesn’t require a degree in forensics. Start with the Commanders’ depth chart, Peters said. 

“Which, there’s a few places that we don’t (have any players),” he said.  

Depth at running back, wide receiver and tight end are all issues on the offensive side of the ball. Defensive line is a big question mark currently, although it is regarded as the strongest position group at the top of the 2025 draft class. 

For Peters, the puzzle-solving begins by figuring out which positions may have stronger players available in the draft versus free agency and vice versa. 

“Going into the offseason, into March really, just understanding the totality of the classes and understanding where you can best use your assets,” Peters said.  

The Jon Allen question 

On Tuesday, the team said Allen has been given the opportunity to seek a trade. 

“These kinds of decisions and things you have to come up with are always tough, right?” Peters said. “…He’s been a great person for this franchise for a long time.”

The conversations that lead to a player given the chance to explore other employment opportunities can be tough to have, said Peters, “but you always want to have them civilly, and we have.” 

MORE: Camaraderie, competition and a dismissive ‘(bleep) you’: How Commanders’ code erased toxic culture

If there is no deal to be made, Allen could be a cut candidate. Allen is due $15.5 million this season but that base salary is not guaranteed, according to NFL.com. 

This is the time of the sport’s calendar when football and business intersect and that’s reality, Quinn said. 

“No team is the same year-to-year,” he said. “We know that. 

“That’s not specific to one player. It’s specific to the whole team.” 

Defensive line prototypes

One area that’s abundantly clear for addressing is the pass rush, especially if Allen – who missed half of the season with a torn pectoral muscle – is on the move. Veterans Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler, who led the team in sacks last season, followed Quinn from the Dallas Cowboys to the Commanders last offseason, but being younger at the spot would be wise. 

The ideal pass rusher in Quinn’s mind is someone with initial quickness and capable of “beating somebody to the punch.”

That sounds similar to Peters’ ideal version of a pass rusher. He wants someone who is physical and relentless, a prospect “who’s got that get-off and, really, to be really good in this league, I think you have to have both speed and power.” 

Finding weapons for Jayden Daniels 

Part of Daniels’ encore to a sensational rookie season will depend on how the front office supplies him with targets. Veteran tight end Zach Ertz became a trusted target for Daniels down the stretch and is certainly a candidate to be re-signed. Receivers Olamide Zaccheaus and Noah Brown also emerged.  

Whether it’s those players back in the burgundy and gold or fresh blood, Quinn said players at skill positions will have one thing in common. 

“We want to attack, man. So, however we can find ways to do that, we will,” said Quinn, who noted the Commanders had the most no-huddle snaps outside of running two-minute drills in the NFL. “That’s part of our edge. So finding guys that can play in space, play with quickness, be violent with their cuts.”  

What about Bobby Wagner? 

Whether linebacker Bobby Wagner, who became a mentor to Daniels last year, will return in 2025 is a question mark, and Quinn said to the reporters gathered they’d have to ask his agent – a tongue-in-cheek comment, of course, because the linebacker represents himself.

But Wagner was still top of mind for Quinn on Wednesday when he was describing the type of players he wants in the building. 

“Somewhere – I have not talked to him today – but somewhere Bobby Wagner is getting better,” Quinn said. “I don’t know where it is or what it looks like or how he’s doing it but that’s the type of attitude we want to chase.”

High marks 

The Commanders jumped from 32nd to 11th in the NFL Players’ Association’s annual report card, based on more than 1,600 player surveys across the league. 

Quinn was happiest about the treatment of families score (B+), saying the families of everyone in the organization make sacrifices so they can do their role with the Commanders. 

“So to have that right there – team travel – all those, to me, reflect back to (owner Josh Harris) and the vision of what it can be,” Quinn said. “I couldn’t be more proud to be part of it.” 

Quinn himself was the highest-rated coach, and he was still talking about chasing improvement anyway. Play style and identity were his main priorities in year one. 

Yet Quinn still wanted proof – results. Hope is one thing, Quinn said, and in the second half of the season, he saw hope turn into belief. 

Jeff Bezos is shaking up the Washington Post again. The billionaire owner of the newspaper said Wednesday he will change the focus of the opinion section to focus on “support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”

According to Bezos, he offered Washington Post editorial opinion page editor David Shipley “the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes,’ then it had to be ‘no,’” Bezos wrote in a post on X. ”After careful consideration, David decided to step away.” As such, “We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction.”

Bezos, who acquired the Washington Post in 2013, said the Post’s opinion section will “cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” According to the Amazon founder, “There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.”

Shipley, former editorial page editor for the New York Times and one-time executive editor of Bloomberg View became the Washington Post’s editorial page editor in July 2022. In an email to colleagues obtained by the New York Times, Shipley wrote in part, “It is with both sadness and gratitude that I write to let you know that I have decided to leave The Post. This is a conclusion I reached after reflection on how I can best move forward in the profession I love.”

Jeff Stein, the Post’s chief economics reporter, slammed Bezos’ move, writing on X: “Massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section today — makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there. I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of coverage, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know.”

The changes Bezos has made at WaPo come as he has cozied up to Donald Trump, which some critics see as an attempt to curry favor with the current U.S. president or to avoid getting bullied by Trump. The day after the election, Bezos congratulated Trump “on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory,” while Amazon was among companies that donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Bezos also has said he is willing to work with President Trump to dismantle government regulations that hinder economic growth.

Last fall, Bezos ignited a major backlash among Washington Post readers and staff when he decreed — less than two weeks before the U.S. presidential election — that the newspaper would not endorse a candidate.

“We just decided [an endorsement] wasn’t… going to influence the election one way or the other,” Bezos said at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit in December. He added, “The pluses of doing this were very small.” Bezos admitted it would have been better if he’d had the “prescience” to have made the change two years ago rather than shortly before the 2024 election, but that he was nevertheless “proud” of the decision.

At the DealBook conference, Bezos acknowledged that he’s a “terrible” owner of Washington Post because there are continuous questions of conflicts with Bezos’ interests in Amazon and aerospace company Blue Origin. But, he added, when the Post needs “financial resources, I’m available. I’m like the doting parent in that regard.” Bezos had previously written in a Washington Post op-ed that he was aiming to restore consumers’ trust in the paper by eliminating the practice of political endorsements, which he said “create the perception of bias.”

Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 and stepped aside as CEO in 2021. He continues to serve as the company’s executive chairman.

Here is the text of the note Bezos sent to Post staffers:

I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages.

We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.

There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.

I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.

I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t “hell yes,” then it had to be “no.” After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift, it won’t be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision. We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction.

I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.

Jeff