Teens charged over knife deaths

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-19  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

TWO American teenagers have been charged in the killings of a woman who was stabbed and cut more than 100 times and her 10-year-old son, who had a television smashed over his head, prosecutors said.

Stafon Edward Thompson, 17, and Brian Lee Flowers, 16, both of Minneapolis, were each charged on Tuesday as adults with first-degree murder in the deaths of Katricia Daniels, 36, and her son, Robert Shepard. If convicted, the teens face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

According to criminal complaints, Thompson and Flowers blamed the killings on each other. They allegedly knew Daniels through her 15-year-old son, who lives in Chicago.

The boys indicated that robbery was a motive, but Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman doubted that, noting the extreme violence. The only thing apparently taken was Daniels' cell phone. "We don't know why this murder was committed and we may never know why. The level of violence associated with this crime is difficult to comprehend and difficult to imagine," Freeman said.

Thompson and Flowers were being held yesterday pending their first court appearances, when they will be assigned public defenders. Neither could be reached for comment; jail inmates in Hennepin County are not allowed to take phone calls.

Daniels' boyfriend, Joseph Williams, found the bodies. Williams' one-year-old daughter was bloody but was unharmed. Blood was spattered throughout the house, and bloody footprints, handprints and fingerprints were left behind.

Police recovered two knives and a golf club in the Daniels' house that they believe were used in the killings. They also found a knife in a garbage can in the alley.