Verdict reached in homicide
at day-care center

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

A local mother of five who shot her husband to death during an argument in her soon-to-open Mayfair child day-care center was convicted last week of voluntary manslaughter, but she dodged a murder charge.
Karen Grauber, 39, formerly of the 8000 block of Rowland Ave., faces a possible 12-1/2 to 25 years behind bars and a minimum of five to 10 years because the crime involved a gun.
Besides manslaughter, she was convicted of possessing an instrument of crime. Common Pleas Court Judge Peter F. Rogers scheduled sentencing for May 4.
Rogers set cash bail of $150,000. The defendant had been in prison since the killing, because she was charged with a capital offense.
Anthony Grauber, 38, died Jan. 2, 2006, when the defendant shot him once in the chest just before midnight inside the day-care center at 7425 Frankford Ave. They were alone at the time.
The verdict brought mixed emotions for the victim’s family members, who were glad for the conviction but disappointed that the 12-person jury didn’t agree that it was murder. Anthony Grauber’s family suspects that some element of planning may even have been involved on the defendant’s part.
"Overall, the family is happy because we have a (conviction) here for a crime she committed," said Paul Grauber, the victim’s brother. "But ultimately, it’s not what we feel it should be."
Assistant District Attorney Yvonne Ruiz believes that the jury was split between a third-degree murder conviction and voluntary manslaughter. Following almost two days of deliberations, the jury notified Rogers that it was at a stalemate.
The judge instructed them to continue deliberating. They emerged with the voluntary manslaughter conviction a short time later.
"It’s the fact that there aren’t really any eyewitnesses to the case," Ruiz said. "The only people who really know what happened are the victim and defendant."
Voluntary manslaughter is defined as an intentional killing in which the killer has some justification or excuse, such as imperfect self-defense, in which the killer believed he or she was in jeopardy of death or serious bodily harm, although he or she may not have been in jeopardy.
The defense may also argue that the killer acted in reaction to sudden, serious provocation.
Karen Grauber claimed from the beginning that she acted in self-defense. She called 911 moments after the shooting and reported calmly and with little emotion that she shot her husband because he had assaulted her.
She showed a similar disposition for most of the two-and-a-half-day trial while sitting at the defense table in a black track suit. Prison apparently has taken a toll on the woman. She looks much heavier than in her police mug shot and her black hair is now streaked in gray.
Defense attorney Charles A. Peruto Jr. claimed throughout the trial that Anthony Grauber had beaten his wife repeatedly throughout their 18-year marriage. The beatings included rapes, he said, and led to some 10 hospital visits.
Peruto submitted no medical record as evidence, however, although there was documentation of a restraining order obtained by the defendant against her husband in 2002.
The defendant made similar claims on the stand. She said through tears that she had been sleeping overnight at the day-care center because he was beating her and forcing her into sex at home.
The accusations of rape were hard to accept for the victim’s family.
"That’s the sad part about it," said Paul Grauber, the victim’s brother. "My mother’s jaw hit the floor. I had to explain that there are loopholes (in the law) and (the defense) has to take advantage of them. (Karen) has to lie. It exemplified the mean-spirited way she is."
Ruiz noted that the defendant and her attorney never referred to any rapes during the police investigation or the preliminary hearing. The first time they mentioned the word was at the trial, the prosecutor said.
"If there was (rape), she would have said that (from the start)," Ruiz said.
On the night of the killing, the couple and a third person — Karen Grauber’s business partner — were working on the day-care center. Anthony Grauber was a construction contractor by trade.
The center was to open for business within weeks.
The partner left the couple alone at about 11:30 p.m. As the husband and wife argued, Anthony Grauber threw his wife onto a coach and choked her, the woman claimed. Then he threatened her verbally.
"He was going to rape me," she testified. "I knew what it meant (when he said) it was ‘going to be a long night.’ I had been through those nights before."
Both had guns and permits. Karen Grauber pulled her gun on her spouse. On the stand, she admitted that she didn’t see her husband’s gun but said, "I knew the gun was there. I had seen it earlier."
Karen Grauber told police investigators that she shot her husband when he reached for his own gun. In court, however, she said that her eyes were closed and she wasn’t sure if he was reaching for a gun or not.
The bullet entered the victim’s chest from a side angle and exited his back. Ruiz argued that the trajectory and range — about three feet — of the wound indicates that Anthony Grauber was turning away from his wife’s gun, as if to flee, when she fired.
When police arrived at the shooting scene, they found the murder weapon on a chair inside the building. Anthony Grauber’s body was lying in the day-care center office doorway. His gun was lying on the couch at the opposite side of the room, nowhere near the body.
There was no evidence of a struggle.
Peruto argued in closing that the defendant had no other option than to shoot her husband.
"What else was she supposed to do in this long, unpleasant relationship?" he asked rhetorically.
Ruiz pointed out that the defendant had both the economic means and the self-sufficiency to leave her husband if she wanted. She owned two other profitable day-care centers and had paid $16,000 to get the third one ready to open.
Furthermore, she had left home on numerous occasions before, leaving Anthony Grauber the responsibility of raising their five children, ages 5 to 17, the oldest being an adopted daughter.
In the days leading up to the shooting, though, the husband told his wife that he planned to leave, Ruiz said, citing testimony from the couple’s oldest daughter.
The daughter also testified that her mom told her by telephone on the night of the killing that both husband and wife would be returning home after work that night. That was before the killing.
The five Grauber children are staying with their father’s family, Paul Grauber said. Paul Grauber’s wife is operating another local day-care center formerly owned by Karen Grauber under a different name with proceeds benefiting the care of her children. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com