A 13-year-old Pennsylvania girl faces multiple charges after admitting to killing her mother following an argument about her cellphone, police reports say.
Lataya Powell was charged as an adult for homicide after she confessed to police that she stabbed her 44-year-old mother Tameeka Tucker last Friday.
The Citizens Voice reports that Powell called 911 that day. When Wilkes-Barre police got to her home that afternoon, they found Tucker unresponsive with multiple stab wounds to her neck and back and blood coming from her head, according to WYOU.
They also discovered an 11-year-old boy lying on a couch with stab wounds to his neck. He was treated for his injuries at a hospital and is expected to recover.
As for Powell, responding officers followed a trail of blood to a bedroom where they found her sitting on the floor with blood on her hands, according to local reports. There were no signs the girl had been attacked.
When officers first spoke with Powell, she said she was sorry she killed her mom and she stabbed her during an argument.
According to a criminal complaint, the 13-year-old said, “I killed my mom, and she’ll never forgive me if she is alive.”
She also made statements like, “I don’t have my phone because my mom took it before our fight,” “I’m the reason my mom is dead,” and “I don’t know how people can do stuff like this and not feel bad about it,” according to The Citizens Voice.
Authorities noticed several kitchen drawers and cabinets that had been fastened with padlocks. They noticed a lock on one drawer with some cutlery in it that had been broken.
Powell admitted to investigators that she threw the murder weapon on a neighbor’s doorstep after the stabbing, a statement that was corroborated by home video surveillance.
As she was being led away in handcuffs by police, a local reporter asked her, “Any emotion at all?”
“Regret, guilt, self-disgust,” Powell said.
Neighbors told WDBJ they were shocked that a teenage girl could commit such a grisly crime. One resident said the family had only been living inside their home for about a month before the stabbing.
“I’m just thankful I wasn’t out here because you never know what could’ve happened, but I look at it that something good could come out of this and that she can get the help she needs. My prayers go out to the family and I’m sorry this happened,” one neighbor said.
The teen also faces aggravated assault and evidence tampering charges.
The town of Wilkes-Barre is more than 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
