After a preliminary hearing yesterday, Municipal Judge Teresa Deni ordered Karen Grauber held for the Jan. 4 murder of her husband. She will be formally arraigned on May 3.
The Graubers already were operating two day-care facilities in the city and were poised to open their third. Both were at the facility on the night of Jan. 3. Karen Grauber had been sleeping on the couch there after an unknown incident in the family home.
Bartholomew testified that Grauber told her she had been fighting with her husband when her husband grabbed her around the neck. Grauber told her husband she wanted to get a cigarette out of her pocketbook, Bartholomew said, but instead grabbed an automatic handgun. She turned and fired one shot into Anthony Grauber's chest.
Karen Grauber told police her husband, too, was armed. A gun was found on a couch about six feet from where his body fell.
Asked by defense attorney Charles Peruto Jr. to describe Karen Grauber's demeanor that night, Bartholomew said the woman was "visibly shaken."
"She was upset. She wasn't crying. She answered all the questions I asked her," Bartholomew said. "You could tell she was upset."
Grauber also told Bartholomew it was not the first time her husband had physically harmed her, the officer said.
Anthony Grauber's parents, four of his siblings, and other family members packed the courtroom. When Karen Grauber entered the room, one woman started to cry. Another began shaking, while a third bit her hand and shook her head. Some wept during the hearing.
When Deni said Grauber was not eligible for bail, the group clapped loudly. Grauber glanced quickly over her shoulder at them, then turned away.
After the hearing, Peruto said he would not detail what incident led to Karen Grauber's leaving the family home in the days before the killing, but said he would present evidence of domestic abuse, including "15 years of broken bones, facial fractures, removals of hair by the fist.
"Sooner or later, something was going to happen within this volatile situation," he said.
Outside the courthouse, Anthony Grauber's older brother, Paul, said the couple "had their fair share of fights, like any relationship," but "there was no violence in the house."
To say there had been would only hurt the couple's children, ages 5 to 17, who are now being cared for by Anthony Grauber's parents, Paul Grauber said.
"Not only did she kill him, but now she's going to have him desecrated in public," he said.
Contact staff writer Natalie Pompilio at 215-854-2813 or npompilio@phillynews.com.
