The man told police he was “lying in wait” in her closet before killing her, documents said. News4’s Paul Wagner reports.
An 87-year-old woman was found killed inside a home in Potomac, Maryland, Sunday night after her grandson showed up to a police station and confessed to the crime, police say.
Spencer Dillon Hamilton, 27, walked into the Rockville City Police station just after 8 p.m. and told officers he killed his grandmother, Pauline Yvonne Titus-Dillon, at her home, according to Montgomery County charging documents.
Officers then went to the home in the 12600 block of Tribunal Lane and found Titus-Dillon with traumatic injuries and pronounced her dead at the scene, police said.
Hamilton told police he was "lying in wait" in his grandmother's bedroom closet before killing her between 4 to 4:30 Sunday morning, according to charging documents. He confessed to stabbing, strangling and punching her, police wrote in the documents.
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He said he then moved Titus-Dillon's body and tried to clean up the crime scene, the charging documents said. Before leaving the home, he took her credit card, cellphone and laptop, according to police.
Police said in the charging documents Hamilton had those belongings and the weapon they believe he used to stab his grandmother when they took him into custody.
Hamilton was charged with first-degree murder.
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Hamilton told a judge he wanted to represent himself while appearing in court via closed circuit television Monday.
After conferring with a public defender, the judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation for Hamilton and told him he would be back in court in a week.
A source with knowledge of the case confirmed to News4 that Titus-Dillon was a physician who once practiced at Howard University Hospital.
Neighbors called her a "beautiful soul" and a "lovely lady."
Police haven't given any information on a potential motive in the killing.
A medical examiner in Baltimore will do an autopsy to find the exact cause and manner of the victim's death, police said.
