A Maryland teenager accused of killing his father admitted it in court Monday and said his father was controlling his mind.
A judge denied bond for 17-year-old Barba Koroma Monday and ordered a psychological evaluation.
Koroma, 17, admitted to stabbing his 62-year-old father, also named Barba Koroma, causing the SUV they were in to crash into a fence on Northview Drive near Allen Pond Park Friday afternoon, Prince George's County police said.
Koroma's attorney repeatedly advised him not to speak in court Monday, but he did anyway, admitted killing his father and telling the judge his father was controlling his mind and his mother's mind.
Koroma's mother addressed the court Monday, saying her son lived with his father in Bowie for the past year, which is when she noticed behavioral changes that concerned her. She said she encouraged the boy's father to take him to be evaluated, and the stabbing took place a day after an evaluation.
Prince George’s County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy was in the courtroom when the dramatic events unfolded.
"We understand that this is a family situation," she said. "It’s tough, but we also know that the judge determined — based on all that she heard — that a mental health evaluation would be appropriate in this matter and we certainly supported that."
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Bowie police officers found the father in a wooded area near the crash. Medics tried to save him, but he died at the scene.
Officers said they saw the teen walking out of the wooded area and he was taken to a hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.
Investigators questioned Koroma and determined he and his father were fighting inside the SUV as his father was driving. Koroma told detectives he stabbed his father and then pulled him from the vehicle and dragged him into the woods nearby, police said.
Koroma, a rising junior at Bowie High School, was charged as an adult with first- and second-degree murder.
