Robert Barnes, 36, was charged with murder and tampering with a corpse in connection with the death of his mother Lucilla, 72.
a Texas The man with a long rap sheet confessed to killing his elderly mother and mutilating her body, which officers found stuffed inside a crate in her garage on Thursday morning.
Robert Barnes, 36, is being held on $650,000 bail on charges of murder and tampering with the body of his 72-year-old mother, Lucilla Barnes.
On Friday, a Harris County judge read court documents in which Barnes confessed to having shot his mother multiple times, mutilating her, and stuffing the box at his family’s home.
According to the Houston station, Barnes has a long criminal record since at least 2003. Khow.
Prior to the murder, he was out on probation when he refused to pay his bill at the Zaza, the $240-a-night Hotel in Houston’s Museum District. Investigators found he was lying on the bed of his hotel room holding a knife.
Family members say they went to Barnes’ home at 11127 Cactus Point Court sometime on Wednesday because they hadn’t heard from Lucilla since Tuesday.
In a court hearing on Friday, a Houston judge said Barnes had confessed to the gruesome murder.
Barnes dismembered Lucilla’s body and placed it inside a crate in the garage of her home.
Relatives said they checked in on Lucilla Barnes, 72, in her high school senior photo on Wednesday after not listening since Tuesday.
“I also learned that when his sister went to examine him, he came out with an AK rifle and asked them to leave and he took his mother to the airport,” the magistrate judge said on Friday.
‘They tried to tell the same thing to the authorities but then couldn’t say which airport it is.’
The relatives called the officials on Wednesday evening KPRC.
Jason Brown of the Sergeant Harris County Sheriff’s Office said Barnes had ‘actually brandished a firearm outside the residence and did not cooperate with investigators when they first arrived at the scene.’
“I also learned that when his sister went to examine him, he came out with an AK rifle and asked them to leave and he took his mother to the airport,” the judge said.
‘And [he] Will not allow anyone else inside the house. This is the reason why the deputy had to get a search warrant to finally go inside the house.’
Deputies said they found a lot of blood in the house, but didn’t see any signs of Lucilla until they checked the garage.
Officials say it is unclear when and why Barnes killed his mother, although the family says they heard from her on Tuesday.
A neighbor told a local station: ‘We’ll just see him outside gardening and lawns and stuff like that.’
Barnes was on probation at the time of the murder for not leaving a Houston hotel and refusing to pay in 2019. Officers later found him on the bed holding a knife.
On Friday, Barnes also confessed to making the crate, the remains of his mother found a month earlier.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez described the incident on Twitter as “tragic and appalling.”
As a condition of his bail, which he has yet to post, Barnes was ordered not to contact his family, surrender any travel documents and remain under house arrest until his next court date. Wear a GPS ankle monitor.
Barnes, who has an eight-year-old, has a history of run-ins with the law in Houston and neighboring Fort Bend County.
In 2003, he pleaded guilty to theft of a firearm, according to KOOU, and in 2004, he was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
According to court documents, in 2016, he grabbed a woman’s hair, forced his fingers inside her mouth to keep her quiet, and stabbed her with a knife.
He was convicted of unlawful restraint.
In 2019, Barnes was arrested after refusing to leave Hotel Zaza after not paying his bill. Investigators found him on the bed of a hotel room with a knife.
He was given 16 months probation for that case earlier this year.
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