After he had killed his great-grandmother, 15-year-old Gevin Allen Prince raised a sword above his head and stabbed the woman in her chest, according to testimony Thursday in Douglas County Magistrate Court.
Prince, clad in a khaki-colored prison jumpsuit, hung his head through most of the hearing. The case will now go to a grand jury.
Prince faces murder and aggravated assault charges in the Aug. 15 incident that left Mary Joan Gibbs, 77, dead and seriously injured Laura Prince, Gevin Prince's grandmother. Gevin Prince was taken into custody after about a 10-minute standoff with law enforcement and booked into the Douglas County jail, where he has remained without bond.
The teenager is also accused of chasing two teenagers off with a sword as they tried to help Gibbs, just before she died, Lt. Bruce Ferguson with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Those teens then called 911, Ferguson said.
When deputies arrived at the Spring Ridge Drive home, Gevin Prince was outside, holding both a sword and a loaded BB gun, Ferguson said. Prince fired several shots from the gun at deputies and struck patrol cars before he was eventually Tasered and taken into custody.
Video taken from a dashboard camera in a patrol car captured Gevin Prince outside his home holding the gun and sword. A few minutes of that video was show in the courtroom Thursday, after District Attorney David McDade gave Prince's family the option to leave. Family members opted to remain in the courtroom.
Laura Prince previously told the AJC she had reared Gevin and had tried to seek help for his mental problems. Gevin suffers from Asperger's syndrome, which is similar to autism, and the older he got, the more he “acted out” physically, eventually prompting 911 calls to county authorities, Laura Prince told the AJC.
On Aug. 15, Laura Prince was in the family's living room as Gevin Prince played his Xbox, Ferguson said Thursday. Gevin wanted to use the computer, but his grandmother said no, Ferguson testified. Gevin became increasingly agitated and grabbed a kitchen knife, which he used to stab his great-grandmother approximately 30 times, according to the autopsy.
“I don’t know what happened,” Laura Prince previously told the AJC. “It was like, this is not Gevin. When I looked at that face and saw him, that was not my grandson.”
Laura Prince barricaded herself in a bathroom in the home, but Gibbs could not escape the attack, Ferguson said.
"Here comes the biggies," Laura Prince overhead her grandson say, according to Ferguson.
Inside the home, investigators found a gruesome scene that included blood throughout the home and down the front outside bannisters, Ferguson said.
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