PARIS — A Denmark woman was charged Friday with murder in the November stabbing deaths of her boyfriend and grandmother.
An Oxford County grand jury handed up an indictment against Tzara Jones, 53, charging two counts of intentional or knowing murder.
Each charge is punishable by 25 years to life in prison.
Jones is accused of killing Michael Willett, 69, and Aremean Mayo, 93, whose deceased bodies were found at Jones’ home at 7 Fuller Lane in Denmark on Nov. 25.
Willett was described as Jones’ “domestic partner” and Jones had been Mayo’s caretaker, according to court records.
Jones had told authorities who were conducting welfare checks on the two victims that Willett was out of state hunting and that Mayo was at a hospital, police said.
Armed with a search warrant, state and county officers entered Jones’ home and found her in a bed near the kitchen, allegedly pretending to sleep and refusing to speak, according to court records.
Jones was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation “due to her erratic behavior,” court records said.
Willett was found in a bed in the home and Mayo was found partially in bed, her head and upper body off the bed.
Both victims had been stabbed in the chest and had been dead more than 24 hours, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Authorities located a kitchen knife covered in red and brown stains in the area where Mayo’s body was found, according to court records.
At a court hearing held after Jones’ arrest, the prosecutor had filed a motion for a forensic psychologist at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services in Augusta to examine Jones to determine whether she is competent to stand trial on the two murder charges and whether she had been suffering from an abnormal condition of mind at the time the alleged crimes were committed.
A judge granted that motion to which Jones’ defense attorney had agreed.
Jones remains held at Oxford County Jail without bail.
Source : Portland Press Herald
