A Pennsylvania man has been arrested for stabbing the mother of the child he was babysitting to death after an alleged adverse reaction to a marijuana cookie.
Lavrius Watson, 26, was taken into custody early Saturday morning at the home of 41-year-old Elizabeth Bennett Leonard and charged with one count of criminal homicide in her killing, the Pennsylvania State Police said in a press release.
Watson himself called 911 and was heard “audibly crying” as he asked for an ambulance and told the operator “somebody got killed,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Pocono Record.
Officers responding to the home in Mountain Top, Luzerne County, at around 12:30 a.m. Saturday found Leonard dead and propped up against the front door with multiple stab wounds to her abdomen.
Police said that Watson refused to come out through the front door and instead exited covered in blood from the back of the residence, sinking to his knees on the grass and muttering “Why did I do that?”
He later told investigators that he had known Leonard for seven years and had been hired to babysit her 10-year-old son that Friday evening, according to the complaint.
Watson allegedly said that he had suffered an adverse reaction to a weed cookie he and the mom shared after dinner. He told cops that he recalled rising from his seat, walking up to a kitchen drawer, pulling out a knife and stabbing Leonard about five times in the stomach.
Leonard’s son was in the home at the time of the stabbing but was unharmed, the Pocono Record reported. Her other child was said to have been staying elsewhere that night.
Watson is being held without bail at the Luzerne County Prison. He is scheduled to appear in court on October 28, according to local media.