A 13-year-old boy has entered the juvenile form of a guilty plea for killing his mother and nine-year-old brother with a knife and pickaxe handle after a row.
The boy, who was 12 at the time of the killings, entered a plea of “involved” to two charges of first-degree murder at a juvenile hearing in Prince George’s County Circuit Court, Maryland.
Police found the boy’s mother, Katrina Powe, 31, and brother Mystery Hillian, dead in the family’s Forestville, Maryland, flat on April 22. Both had been killed with a knife and the wooden handle of a pickaxe.
The boy had got in a fight with his mother after being thrown out of a party and coming home late, authorities said.
Under Maryland law, children under 14 cannot be charged as adults.
The boy, who was not identified by authorities because he was a minor, would probably be sentenced on December 19 to a detention and treatment centre in South Carolina until he was 21, said Ramon Korionoff, spokesman for the county state’s attorney’s office.
He would also receive help for “certain issues with his mental health”. Korionoff said.