Background: A woman believed to be Jailen Lupton captured on Vivint security footage from Cheryl Edwards” home (Vivint/Cheryl Edwards/WKRG/YouTube). Inset: Jailen Lupton (Mobile County Sheriff’s Office).
An Alabama woman stands accused of beating her grandmother to death with a mallet and then breaking into her neighbor’s home, pleading for help.
Jailen Lupton, 18, faces charges of murder and second-degree burglary, according to Mobile County Sheriff’s Office records. The charges arose from a deadly incident that took place on Saturday.
Deputies say they arrived at the 10300 block of Beverly Road in Irvington, around 20 miles southwest of Mobile, due to a medical emergency. Once there, they found Diane Trest, 70, “unresponsive in her front yard with head trauma,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release. Trest was pronounced dead, and a mallet was found nearby.
The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office said its detectives interviewed witnesses who reported being hailed by a woman who stated Trest had been beaten to death by Lupton, her granddaughter. Another witness had a more detailed account of the aftermath of the alleged killing, saying Lupton had come directly to her door.
“She’s coming up the porch,” neighbor Cheryl Edwards recounted to Mobile-based CBS-affiliate WKRG.” Vivint security footage from Edwards’ home shows the startling encounter.
“What are you doing,” Edwards reportedly said as she met Lupton on her porch.
“I just killed my grandma,” Lupton appears to respond before trying to pass Edwards into the woman’s home. A shoving match ensued.
“Get out!” Edwards screamed. “Get out! Get out!” She then recalled the incident to the local TV station.
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“I shove her down, and she goes down, and I get my mop right there, and I start beating her with my mop,” the neighbor detailed. “So she finally jumps off the porch.”
However, Lupton was apparently not completely deterred. The video shows her returning, coming up to the front door, and attempting to push it open.
“Help me,” she said as she opened the screen door. “Help!” After appearing to find the door locked, she rammed her shoulder into it and allegedly broke in. A scream could be heard from inside.
The sheriff’s office said Lupton was looking for her neighbor’s car keys.
The screen door then opened to the outside and Edwards emerged, crying, “Help! Help!” and running down her porch steps. A deputy arrived afterward.
According to the neighbor, Trest’s home was a frequent cause for concern – and she had warned the grandmother what her fate could be.
“There’s always been issues next door. Ever since I’ve lived here, the cops have always been there,” Edwards told WKRG, saying she had been in her home for 10 years.
“We chatted across the fence,” the neighbor said of her and Trest. “I mean, she told me about her children, her sons, and her daughters, and her grandchildren. And she said, ‘they’re troubled.'”
“She’d come over; she’d have cuts on her, bruises. I mean, she’d say the dogs did it. I’d say, ‘Diane, that’s not from the dogs,'” Edwards recalled. “We kept telling her, ‘they’re gonna kill you one day. They’re gonna drug you or kill you.'”
The neighbor then described the aftermath of Trest’s death.
“The rubber mallet was laying right there, and her face was just obliterated,” she said. “This is senseless. How can somebody do this to your grandparent that has raised you practically your entire life?”
Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch offered one explanation: he said drugs were found at the crime scene, per NBC-affiliate WPMI.
“Typically, meth is what causes the paranoia, which, when she was running, she told neighbors that someone was chasing her – when there was no one, you know, anywhere around her,” Burch said. “And that’s very indicative of meth use.”
Edwards added that “her eyes were as big as saucers. They were huge. Her pupils were huge.”
Lupton and her grandmother were said to have been arguing prior to Trest’s death, but authorities have not stated what they believe caused Lupton to turn violent.
Twenty-one dogs were reportedly seized from the home.
