Connor Crumrine fatally stabbed his mother, Jennifer Crumrine, deputies said. (Mug shot: Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office)
Authorities claim a man fatally stabbed his mother in the neck after she planned to take him to a mental health facility for his concerning behavior.
The victim, Jennifer Crumrine, 54, had initially survived her injuries but died at a hospital, documents state. As of Sunday afternoon, records in Charlotte County, Florida, show that the defendant, Connor Crumrine, 23, is only charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of resisting an officer without violence. Deputies said Friday that they are working with prosecutors to update charges to reflect the stabbing death.
Cops say the defendant attacked his mother while his elder sister called authorities and the other sister tackled him to stop the stabbing, according to the probable cause affidavit viewed by Law&Crime.
Citing interviews with the survivors, deputies describe a sequence of events going back to Monday night.
“Last night, Connor began making statements to the family trying to teach them how to get into a fetal position and making statements about heaven and hell,” investigators wrote. “During this time Connor would also make a finger gun gesture towards them. Due to a fear that Connor may cause harm to them during the night the rest of the family kept their bedroom doors locked.”
Connor, who is the youngest of the siblings, had allegedly told the younger sister to, in the affidavit’s words, “sleep face down tonight so that he can take her to heaven and keep her from going to hell.”
Fearful he might hurt them, the rest of the family slept in shifts, deputies said.
The situation escalated Tuesday morning. They had planned to go on a cruise that day. The mother decided to miss it in order to arrange for Crumrine to stay at Charlotte Behavioral Health Care for mental health care.
She told him her plans, and he procrastinated getting ready, documents said. The mother asked the older sister to call the facility. While this sister was on the phone, she heard her mother scream, “he’s
stabbing me, he’s stabbing me.”
She found her brother stabbing their mother, documents said. The elder sister tried to disarm him, but this caused a minor laceration to her finger. The younger sister woke up to the sound of her mother calling for help, documents stated. She tackled Connor and wrestled with him over the knife, authorities wrote. The older sister worked on trying to save their mother’s life.
Deputies arrived to find Connor struggling with the younger sister, who sustained a stab wound in the upper back, documents said.
“Connor still had the knife in his possession but was not actively using it at the time,” they wrote. “Connor was given multiple commands, which he ignored, and was ultimately tased, continued to be non compliant with law enforcement orders, and had to be physically removed from the bedroom, and detained on scene.”
First responders took Jennifer Crumrine to Fawcett Memorial Hospital, where she eventually died from her injuries, documents stated.
The defendant allegedly declined to speak post-Miranda and asked for an attorney. The court scheduled an arraignment for Jan. 29, records show.
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