Friends of a man allegedly murdered by his mother have told a court he felt isolated and barred from seeing them.
The Gold Coast mother of three accused of murdering her son with a poisoned smoothie has heard from her son’s friends and former neighbours on the fourth day of her trial before Brisbane Supreme Court.
Maree Mavis Crabtree is charged with murder, attempted murder and attempted fraud after allegedly using a fruit juice laced with a lethal dose of oxycodone to kill her 26-year-old son Jonathan and trying to collect on his superannuation benefits.
On Friday, the court heard from Jonathan’s friends and former partner who claimed Jonathan was severely depressed and suicidal following the death of his sister Erin in 2012.
They said Jonathan was a “bubbly” and “happy” person before his sister’s death but spiralled into depression, which reached a climax when he crashed his car in 2015.
The crash left him with a serious brain injury and led him to take prescription pain medication.
Jonathan’s football friend Christopher Tattersall said Jonathan severely struggled in the wake of his sister’s death.
“He was hurt, she was everything to him – that’s his little sister,” Mr Tattersall said.
At the hospital following the car crash, Mr Tattersall said Maree expressed her dread at bringing him home.
“Maree said… ‘I can’t have him at home because he’s going to be a vegetable,’” Mr Tattersall recalled her saying.
He added Jonathan had expressed plans to build a better life in the year after his accident – claiming Jonathan had told him Maree was trying to kick him out of the home and he was looking for an apartment of his own.
Mr Tattersall told the court Maree had implored him to “give up” on Jonathan.
“Don’t bother, he’s not the same anymore, you should just move on,” he recalled her saying.
He told the court Maree said she believed “it was suicide or a heart attack” that killed Jonathan.
The court was told by the Crabtree’s former neighbours, in the years before Jonathan’s death, Maree would also joke about having an excessive amount of opioid medication in the house.
“If you want any morphine you could help yourself because (Maree) had an excess stored in the house,” one neighbour recalled her saying.
Another friend of Jonathan’s, Grace Trueman, told the court he once said his favourite medications were oxycodone and Endone – a brand of oxycodone medication.
She also testified Jonathan was in extreme pain following the accident, stating they would often have to stop walking as his legs were too sore to continue.
Ms Trueman said, while Jonathan changed after the accident, she could converse with him.
The court was previously told Maree had told police Jonathan had the capacity of a six to eight-year-old.
Jonathan’s ex-girlfriend Katelyn Lofts recalled her former partner became abusive when taking prescription medication, threatening to kill himself whenever she attempted to end the relationship.
“In the beginning he was really nice at the start really genuine … really kind, very sweet,” Ms Lofts said.
“When he started getting on the painkillers… that’s when his personality changed.
Ms Loft recalled the day Jonathan was involved in a suspected robbery of a chemist, where he was said to have stolen prescription painkillers.
“I had a gut feeling something wasn’t right and that’s when I said no (to coming for a drive) and just stayed at the house,” she said.
She told the court she saw Jonathan injecting his sister Tara’s oxycodone medication on one occasion, further noticing marks on his arms.
In cross examination, she conceded she previously claimed she was “scared to ask him” about his drug use “in case he went violent”.
Ms Lofts recounted to the court the day their relationship finally ended, the same day Jonathan crashed his car.
“He said he wanted to take his life to be with Erin,” she told the court, referring to Jonathan’s sister Erin who died in 2012.
Despite his history of threatening self-harm, Ms Lofts said Jonathan’s mental state improved since the accident.
In a video call conversation around two months before his death, Ms Lofts said Jonathan was upset but seemed in lighter spirits than the day of his car crash.
“He looked really good after the accident, he doesn’t seem all in his head, but he seemed himself,” she told the court.
“We were talking about rehab and that he was going well with walking.
“He just really wished that he could go see his friends and said Maree wouldn’t let him.”
The trial continues.
