VERO BEACH – Authorities say that the man accused of killing his step-father told them he snapped during an argument over money and blamed the man for sexually abusing him and hooking him on drugs.
Forty-five-year-old Donald Crabtree faces a first degree murder charge after Vero Beach Police say he confessed to killing his 71-year-old step-father, Richard Lloyd, in his home in the 3100 block of 13th Avenue on Sunday, Oct. 5.
Lloyd’s body was discovered covered with a dark colored comforter in a back bedroom on Thursday, Oct. 9, after a friend of Crabtree’s notified authorities that Crabtree had told him what he had done.
During an in-custody interview with investigators, Crabtree told them he suffered for years at the hands of Lloyd, who sexually abused him and got him addicted to crack cocaine. Authorities have not yet verified his claims through witness interviews.
Crabtree, who was found at his mother’s home in Okeechobee County, was arrested and transported back to Indian River County.
Crabtree told investigators that he and Lloyd began arguing over money on Sunday, explaining that he believed Lloyd had stolen money from him. During the argument, Lloyd stood up from the couch and Crabtree grabbed a hammer to defend himself, he told investigators. He added that Lloyd was not armed with anything and that he sustained a scratch on his arm from Lloyd’s nails.
According to a friend of Lloyd’s who spoke to police, Lloyd had suffered a stroke and had COPD, the report states.
During the attack, Crabtree told investigators that after the first blow with the hammer to Lloyd’s head, Lloyd asked Crabtree, “Why?” according to the report. Crabtree responded, “Don’t worry, I’m next.”
Crabtree explained to investigators that while the fight was initially about money, one of the reasons he killed Lloyd was because Lloyd had been mentally and sexually abusing him for years, starting at the age of 12, when Lloyd got him hooked on crack cocaine and then performed oral sex on the child. Later, Lloyd would give Crabtree narcotics in exchange for performing oral sex on Crabtree, Crabtree told investigators. He later told authorities that he had not had sexual contact with Lloyd for years.
Though the murder happened on Sunday, Crabtree told Vero police that he stayed in the home until Tuesday.
Following Lloyd’s death, Crabtree told investigators, he went through Lloyd’s wallet looking for the money he believed had been stolen from him. What money he found, he said, he used to buy beer, which he drank in the home, the report states.
He later asked a friend to pick him up and drive him to his mother’s home in Okeechobee County. On the way to his mother’s home, Crabtree confided in his friend about the incident, according to the arrest report.
His friend told his wife who then called police and requested a welfare check for Lloyd. At around the same time, a friend of Lloyd’s had spent days trying to reach the 71-year-old, calling the home, his cell and knocking on the door. He, too, was concerned for Lloyd, the report states.
Authorities were also told there might be a dog in the home. And though a bloody paw print was discovered on a couch cushion, no dog was found inside the home.
Ofc. Anna Carden told VeroNews.com when asked about the dog, that it was her understanding that Crabtree took the dog from the home and dropped it off with a friend.
Crabtree told investigators he moved Lloyd’s body from the main room into a bedroom because he didn’t know what to do with the body and that Lloyd’s dog was in the home.
Crabtree said “he was upset that he has ruined his life in a matter of a second,” an officer wrote in the arrest affidavit.