Police Charge 12-Year-Old Girl In Mother's Murder
Police: Girl, Upset With Disciplinary Action, Shot Sleeping Mother In Face
POSTED: 8:27 a.m. CDT October 11, 2004
UPDATED: 10:03 a.m. CDT October 12, 2004
Story by nbc5i.com
DALLAS -- A 12-year-old Dallas girl, reportedly mad about being grounded, is charged with the murder of her mother.
Police say all of the evidence points to her as the only suspect in the crime.
"Well, we know she's had a troubled past. We know that, certainly problems with the parents in the background," Sgt. Gary Kirkpatrick said. "Certainly, I'm not going to try to justify what she did. We did find evidence that she has been planning this murder for some time now." The girl is being held in the Juvenile Justice Center.
A detention hearing is being held at 1 p.m. Monday.
Investigators said the incident happened about 1 a.m. Sunday when the girl was home with her mother and 10-year-old brother in the 4600 block of Colonial Avenue.
As 48-year-old Elvira Marion Walton slept, the girl fired a shot into the woman's face, investigators said.
It was her brother who reportedly called police.
During the investigation, police learned the daughter was upset with her mother for disciplining her and found evidence that she may have been planning to kill her mother for some time.
Neighbors said there was a history of trouble between Walton and her daughter.
"Because she didn't want to mind and didn't want to go to school, she was hanging down the street there with those boys and that little girl ... I knew she was a troubled child," neighbor LaShonda Washington said.
Dallas police said the family has had domestic problems in the past, saying the children's biological father once kidnapped them.
The 10-year-old boy will live with his half-sister, NBC 5 reported.
Despite the murder charges, the girl is not old enough to try as an adult.