A judge ordered the release of Latoya Crabbe from jail after dismissing a second-degree murder charge against her, citing repeated missed deadlines by the prosecution. Crabbe, a Manassas mother of three, had been accused of killing her estranged husband, Curtis Crabbe, in October 2024.

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The Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office has been ordered to pay a $22,250 sanction for violating Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The FOIA law is intended to promote government transparency and public awareness of government activities.

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Prince William County Assistant prosecutor D. Burke Walker told Circuit Court Judge Angela Horan that his office would file a motion on the first day of trial not to prosecute Latoya Crabbe on her 2nd-degree murder charge but instead will move to indict her on 1st-degree murder charge.

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A Manassas man who brought an Uzi to Manassas Mall got a lenient sentence after Commonwealth Attorney Amy Ashworth offered him a sweetheart deal to close out two separate cases related to the mall shooting and a separate case where jail officials alleged he participated in a jailhouse beating with five other men who cornered and beat three members of a rival gang.

Daevon Russell, 19, of 9306 Taney Road in Manassas, who at the time, was on pre-trial probation for a 2023 Manassas City shooting that left another teen paralyzed from the neck down, went to the Manassas Mall on July 9, 2024, armed with the Uzi and got into an altercation with another group of teens in the food court.

The altercation spilled outside into the mall parking lot when the shooting began. An innocent bystander and one of the combatants suffered gunshot wounds. The stipulations of his earlier pretrial release required him not to possess weapons, and Virginia law bars those under 21 from possessing handguns.

Originally charged with six felonies and six misdemeanors, Russell faced decades in prison. Ashworth’s agreement dismissed all of the felony charges and gave him a total of one year in jail and four years of Local Offender’s Probation for the misdemeanor charges and allowed him to retain both voting and gun rights. Russell admitted to owning the gun but did not get charged with possessing it under the age of 21.

Ashworth told Potomac Local News that there may have been issues with the case. “The prosecutor handling any case must always consider the strength of the evidence, the availability and willingness of witnesses to testify, the chances of succeeding at trial, the likely sentence if we are successful at trial, and the victim’s position regarding the outcome of the case as we evaluate how to proceed with a case. It is always our intention to seek justice and keep the community safe.”

Ashworth, when asked about Russell keeping his gun rights, which are normally removed from those convicted of felony offenses, said, “If there are consequences regarding his gun rights, you’ll have to look at the appropriate code sections.”  Virginia code does not prevent those convicted of only misdemeanor charges from further possessing weapons.

Despite being sentenced to one year in jail and only being in custody for six months, Prince William Adult Detention Center officials confirm Russell’s confinement for all five cases ended on January 9, 2025, just one day after Circuit Court Judge Angela Horan and General District Court Judge Che’ Rogers accepted his plea agreement. He is still being held without bond for the 2023 shooting where he is scheduled to appear at trial March 3, 2025 to answer to those charges.

Both men injured in the Mall shooting have recovered.

Mauricio Antonio Mayorga, 48, was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Nov. 21 for a March 2023 murder in the Hoadly Road Food Lion parking lot.

Judge James A. Willett found Mayorga guilty of one count of second-degree murder following his guilty plea on the charge. Willett also sentenced Mayorga.

Prince William County Police responded to a reported shooting on Hoadly Road in Manassas in the early morning hours of March 20, 2023. The female caller reported she arranged a meeting between herself and her estranged significant other, Ricardo Del Cid, 37 of Manassas, at the Food Lion.

When police responded, they found Del Cid in a vehicle suffering from gunshot wounds. He was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene. Security camera footage showed Mayorga arrived at the parking lot before 1 a.m. and fired multiple gunshots at Del Cid, according to the Commonwealth Attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case.

Mayorga was married to the female caller and was charged on April 5, 2023.

“This case was such a horrible tragedy. Our community lost a valuable member to senseless gun violence. Excellent police work allowed us to resolve this case without putting the victims’ families through a trial. Mr. Mayorga accepted responsibility for his actions by entering a guilty plea to the second-degree murder charge,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth said.

Ezzedin Baryoh was sentenced to nearly 70 years in prison after being found guilty by a Prince William County jury following an April 2023 shooting in Triangle.

According to a release from Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth, Prince William County Circuit Court Judge Petula C. Metzler sentenced Baryoh on Friday to serve 93 years with 25 years suspended, leaving 68 years to serve followed by five years of supervised probation.

On Aug. 15, a jury found Baryoh guilty of malicious wounding, attempted malicious wounding, attempted malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer, shooting into an occupied dwelling, shooting from a vehicle, five counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and gang participation, the release stated.

According to InsideNOVA, Baryoh was a juvenile at the time of the shooting.

The shooting occurred on April 19, 2023; Baryoh and his co-defendant, Sean Hughes Jr., opened fire at a Triangle residence. According to the release from the Commonwealth’s Attorney, a woman inside the home was struck multiple times. A bystander and Detective S. Davis were nearly struck by gunshots. Baryoh and Hughes fled to Maryland where they were ultimately arrested with one of the guns used in the shooting.

The release also stated that Hughes was convicted by a jury trial on Feb. 2, and was sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Carroll A. Weimer Jr. on May 30. Hughes was sentenced to 78 years with 50 years suspended, leaving 28 years to serve. His case is currently before the Virginia Court of Appeals.

In a meeting on October 8, 2024, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved funding for new positions in the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, addressing the office’s need for additional resources to handle an increasing caseload. The positions include four new attorney roles: paralegal, victim-witness staff, and administrative staff. Commonwealth Attorney Amy Ashworth emphasized the importance of these positions for the efficiency and effectiveness of the county’s criminal justice system.

The new hires come after Ashworth said she would withhold prosecution of certain misdemeanor charges, effective May 1, 2024, if county leaders don’t give her more employees.

During the meeting, Ashworth explained the need for the positions, noting that the Virginia Compensation Board had allocated funding for four attorney positions at $70,000 each, but that amount fell short of what is needed in Northern Virginia. “Obviously, that doesn’t cover what we pay in Northern Virginia for an attorney,” she said. She also worked with the county’s budget office to creatively allocate the funding, ensuring that critical positions would be filled.

Ashworth explained that while the positions were funded for fiscal year 2025, the full costs of the positions will be felt in FY 2026 due to the timing of when the hires are expected to take place. “They’d be active for maybe six or seven months of the remainder of the fiscal year. But in fiscal ’26, they would presumably be hired and filled, and their salaries and benefits would be paid for the entirety of the fiscal year,” she said.

The new positions come after an updated time study from the Supreme Court of Virginia recommended that the Prince William Commonwealth Attorney’s Office be staffed with 61 attorneys, 30 administrative staff, and 15 paralegals. Ashworth pointed out this was an increase from the previous year’s recommendation and highlighted the office’s struggle with understaffing. “We are operating with approximately half of the administrative staff that the time study recommends and approximately half of the paralegals,” she told the board.

Supervisors acknowledged the importance of providing adequate resources to the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, particularly in light of the increasing demands on the local criminal justice system. Supervisor Bob Weir expressed concern about the funding shortfalls, asking, “Are we on the hook for the delta between the two amounts?” He pointed out that the revenue provided by the Compensation Board did not fully cover the costs associated with the positions.

Supervisor Yesli Vega, who was previously critical of the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, expressed her support for the additional staffing, recognizing the need for more resources. “I do understand that there is a need and that this continues to be an opportunity for myself and the Commonwealth Attorney to work collaboratively to assure that we’re addressing the needs that the office really has,” she said.

One of the most critical roles approved was for a victim-witness staff member, a position Ashworth emphasized as essential to ensuring that victims and witnesses feel safe and supported when coming to court. “There is a lot of reluctance on the part of people to do that, to be involved. People are afraid that there will be retribution,” she said, explaining the importance of the victim-witness role in helping alleviate those fears and ensuring witnesses are kept informed and supported throughout the legal process.

The discussion also highlighted the need for collaboration between local and state governments to ensure that compensation for critical public safety roles is adequate. “We have to make sure that each of these [departments] have adequate resources,” said Supervisor Andrea Bailey. “Quite frankly, we’re going to continue to have these discussions about how the Compensation Board does their part.”

The new positions are set to be fully incorporated into the FY 2026 budget, and discussions are ongoing about how to fund the shortfalls between state-provided compensation and local needs. Ashworth closed the discussion by expressing gratitude for the board’s support and underscoring the importance of providing adequate resources to maintain a functioning and just legal system.

 

In a recent episode of Potomac Local Live, I talked with Prince William County Supervisor Yesli Vega about various pressing issues affecting the county. Our conversation focused on crime trends, community safety initiatives, and policy responses to local challenges such as panhandling.

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In Prince William County, a catch-and-release style revolving justice system keeps more criminals on the street in the name of fairness.

A shooting at Manassas Mall on July 9, 2024, left two people injured, including one of five suspects in the case, underscores a more significant problem with the justice system in a much more progressive Prince William County.

At odds are those who want to reform the judicial process to make it more fair for criminals and those who wish to prosecute crime to get them off the streets for a determinate period. Caught in the middle are county residents.

Revolving Justice System and Its Implications

In a July 10 letter to her constituents, Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega, whose district borders the Manassas mall, highlighted two cases where individuals previously accused of felony offenses were released from custody and re-offended. In the mall shooting, she highlighted that 18-year-old Daevon Russell, one of the individuals involved in the gun battle that left a shooter and a bystander wounded, had been previously arrested after an August 2023 shooting for reckless handling of a gun causing permanent bodily severe injury, a felony.

Court records show Russell went to a classmate’s house and shot the cousin of the classmate, who was also inside the home, without provocation. Russell ran from the home, leaving the victim there to bleed. The victim went into cardiac arrest several times on the life flight to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where doctors were able to stop the bleeding and save his life.

Controversial Decisions and Judicial Diversion

When the case went to court, Judge Petula C. Metzer, on a recommendation from county Commonwealth Attorney Amy Ashworth, released Russell with nothing more than a promise to appear and the stipulations that he “not consume intoxicants and have no contact with the victim.” Ashworth claimed her office argued for no bond at a previous hearing, but she could not produce the bond document to prove her claim.

There was no stipulation in Metzler’s order to not possess or carry a firearm. Russell is now accused of going to the mall armed and getting into an altercation in the food court that escalated to shots fired between the two groups.

In a separate case in her letter, Vega highlighted Arial Moya Claros, who has 11 previous charges involving alcohol and family violence over the last two years, before his arrest on July 7, 2024, for felony abduction by force and misdemeanor domestic violence assault and a second driving while intoxicated (DWI) charge.

Six months earlier, in a January 2024 case, Claros’ landlord sought a restraining order against him after the landlord claimed Claros “took the eviction process personal” and claimed Moya Claros was caught on camera attempting to damage the landlord’s vehicles. A verbal confrontation ensued, and the police responded. The landlord also claimed in his petition for a restraining order that Claros followed his pre-teen daughter home, and she had to hide and call her parents because she was scared.

Claros’ case was adjudicated in a family court diversion program in the two earlier domestic violence instances. Had he been convicted in either of the other domestic violence cases, he would be facing a Class Six felony charge for the Domestic Violence assault, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in jail.

Now, he faces only a misdemeanor assault charge because there were no convictions in the earlier cases, for which carries a much lighter potential sentence. Despite his history of violence and the escalation of violence with this same victim, Claros was released within hours of his arrest on a simple promise to appear.

Commonwealth Attorney Amy Ashworth points to Virginia law that judges only consider convictions, not pre-trial adjudications, when making bail decisions. This requirement by the code to only consider convictions and Ashworth’s focus on diversionary programs sidesteps the more intense consequences convictions provide for re-offenders.

Citing a long-standing prohibition on making statements about open cases, Ashworth said that her office “takes domestic violence cases very seriously and would never agree to a bond if [her office] believed the accused was a danger to anyone or there was a risk the accused [would abscond].” She also said that her office makes good faith recommendations to the judges regarding bail and diversion, but “the Judges unfortunately do not issue reasons for the decisions that they make.”

Diversion Programs vs. Public Safety

Diversion is a broad term referring to alternatives to prosecution that minimize an offender’s exposure to the criminal system by offering an alternative to prosecution and incarceration. These programs bank on an offender’s desire to stay out of jail, to get them on a path to not re-offend.

Diversion programs can help first-time offenders, but experts warn that overusing them for repeat offenders could weaken domestic violence prosecutions. This overuse might unintentionally support the ongoing cycle of violence that victims experience.

Elisa Castillo, director of domestic violence services at Action in Community Through Service (ACTS) in Prince William County, said, “Diversion programs have their place, but some people, for whatever reason, don’t take the chances they are given seriously and jail has to be part of the equation.”

With Ashworth’s election in 2019, county prosecutors shifted focus from a reputation of being tough on crime to a more diversionary justice system that incarcerates fewer criminals and focuses prosecutorial efforts on programs to rehabilitate criminals before they go to jail. The result is a record-low incarceration population in the county lockup and a heavier workload on the probation office.

Prince William County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Terry Fearnley said the jail population hovers around 540 and represents only the worst of the worst offenders. That number is about half of the jail’s average under former county prosecutor Paul Ebert, who retired after 50 years. Under Ebert, the jail averaged 1,000 inmates.

The jail population is not a bellwether of a healthy justice system but can indicate problems. According to Steve Austin, the county’s director of criminal justice services, referrals from the courts to his pretrial release program have risen nearly 19% during Ashworth’s tenure. Yet, recidivism rates, or the number of accused who commit additional crimes, in his programs have increased by two percentage points in the same period.

Ashworth has said that she does not maintain recidivism statistics, so we are unable to compare how many times people not involved in pre-trial supervision re-offend on her watch. In a statement to Potomac Local, Austin said he could not pinpoint why the recidivism rate in his program has increased despite increased staffing and budgeting.

Community Impact and Political Reactions

Supervisor Vega, reserve Prince William sheriff’s deputy, has been critical of Ashworth’s soft-on-crime policies for some time. She highlighted the two cases because they are “but two examples of the catch and release justice system she sees under Ashworth’s watch.” Vega said she has a unique vantage point of the justice system, previously as a patrol cop and now in her reserve capacity working in the courthouse. “I hear complaints from law enforcement officers telling me that they are dismayed how quickly people they arrest for serious crimes are back on the streets within hours of their arrest and back re-offending, and I hear from constituents that are worried about how unsafe our community has become.

Ashworth is a founding member of the Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice (VPPJ), a left-leaning political activist group. VPPJ has been a leading proponent of justice reforms in Virginia that make crime less detrimental for criminals in the name of equal justice.

VPPJ has called for the state legislature to end mandatory minimum sentences and cash bail. A 2021 letter to the General Assembly argued that these reforms would make it more fair for poorer Virginians. Ashworth does not think making the accused put up collateral to leave jail will help criminals return to court, “Requiring a cash bond punishes people for being poor, and it makes bail bond companies rich,” she said.
With the largest prosecutorial team in the commonwealth, Ashworth has made headlines for prosecuting significantly fewer cases and instead focusing on diversionary efforts as an alternative to prosecution. On average, Ashworth’s predecessor, Paul Ebert, prosecuted 350 felony cases monthly. Ashworth comparatively averages to indict 75 125 felonies per month despite a massive influx in funding and personnel.

Her opponents have blamed the lack of prosecutions as the reason for the county’s alarming 70 percent increase in violent crime between 2019 and 2023. In an unsuccessful bid to unseat Ashworth in 2023, Matt Lowery held a press conference highlighting the rise in violent crime last year. “Ms. Ashworth has charted a course virtually identical to the ultra-liberal prosecutors all around us, and Prince William County residents have paid the price with their property, with their health, and even sometimes with their lives,” Lowery said.

In a 2019 interview with Potomac Local News, Ashworth stated that the fair handling of domestic violence cases was one of her top three issues when running for office. “I will assign a senior attorney to exclusively handle domestic violence so we can pay more attention to the serious domestic violence cases and sort out the minor ‘push-and-shove’ cases,” Ashworth said.

According to The National Domestic Violence Hotline, domestic abuse almost always escalates to something bigger without intervention. This escalation appears to be present in the Moya Claros case, where he is now accused of abducting his victim by force- a felony- in his current case.
Russell’s trial on the December charges is set for August 5, 2024. He remains at the Prince William Adult Detention Center with no bond after his arrest for the Manassas Mall incident. He’s scheduled for a preliminary hearing on the mall charges on September 19, 2024.

Moya Claros’ case is set for another adjudication hearing on November 19, 2024. He remains free on a promise to appear.

*This story has been corrected.