Teen kills mom over Internet account
Carl Hessler Jr 04/21/2005
NORRISTOWN -- A teenager, angry that his mother wouldn’t allow him to set up an Internet account on a home computer, allegedly stabbed and beat his mother to death Tuesday morning, according to prosecutors.
"Arguing over an AOL account, the cheapness of life in Norristown is very disturbing," said Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr., referring to the alleged actions of 18-year-old Derek Wayne Jackson.
Jackson, of the 400 block of East Moore Street, Norristown, was arraigned Wednesday before District Justice Francis J. Lawrence Jr. on charges of first- and third-degree murder, possessing instruments of crime, abuse of a corpse and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in connection with the death of his mother, Karen Jackson.
Jackson is being held without bail at the county jail pending his preliminary hearing.
According to a criminal complaint, relatives of Karen Jackson became concerned about her after speaking with Derek Jackson on the telephone on Tuesday and alerted Norristown police to check on the woman’s well being.
When police went to the Moore Street home at 8 p.m., the teenager answered the door and told police, "I had a situation inside. A murder," according to the criminal complaint. When they entered the home, police found Karen Jackson’s body wrapped in a comforter and plastic bags, Castor said. She was pronounced dead at the scene and an autopsy determined she died from multiple stab wounds.
The investigation revealed that Jackson and his mother got into an argument on Monday night when his mother arrived home to find that a padlock on her bedroom door had been removed. Karen Jackson learned that Derek was inside her room accessing her computer and attempting to create a new America Online account, according to county Detective Samuel Gallen and Norristown Detective Robert Robbins.
"Based upon the argument over the AOL account, the defendant planned the murder of his mother," Castor said.
On Tuesday morning, while Karen Jackson got dressed for work, Derek retrieved four knives from the kitchen, investigators alleged. When his mother exited a bathroom, Jackson followed her into her bedroom and began stabbing her, Castor said.
"After stabbing Karen Jackson 17 or 18 times, with four knives he originally took upstairs, he said he then ran downstairs and got two more knives," Robbins wrote in the arrest affidavit. "Derek then went back upstairs to where Karen Jackson was laying and stabbed her 10 more times with the additional knives."
Jackson allegedly told detectives he also used a wooden stick to strike his mother in the head, according to the criminal complaint.
After killing his mother, Jackson used packing tape to wrap his mother’s body in bed covers and trash bags, detectives alleged. Jackson also allegedly used bleach to clean the crime scene and the knives.
"Derek said he cleaned the house to reduce the DNA at the scene," Gallen wrote in the criminal complaint.
Jackson hid the cleaning items, along with the stick and the sweatpants he wore during the alleged murder, in the trunk of a relative’s car, according to the criminal complaint.
"He wrapped the body up and went to great pains to try to destroy evidence or to hide it," Castor said.
©The Mercury 2005
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