WASHINGTON – A former Marine who served in Afghanistan has pleaded guilty in the strangling death of his wife, surprising a northern Virginia court and his own attorney.
Twenty-six-year-old Caleb Crew of Woodbridge, Virginia, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Monday, the same day his trial was supposed to start.
The plea change was unexpected and came moments after a court clerk read the charge against him. Crew quietly told his attorney that he wanted to plead guilty. The judge accepted his plea.
Crew now faces life in prison when he's sentenced Jan. 9.
Last August, prosecutors say 31-year-old Andrea Crew had just dropped domestic abuse charges against her husband when he strangled the mother of two in the back seat of their Jeep.
