A Florida man has been charged with second-degree murder after his 8-year-old stepson called 911 to report that the man was strangling the boy’s mother.
When police arrived at a home in the Pine Castle area of Orange County, the boy’s mother, Tyneel Lindsey, was unconscious and covered in blood.
Police found her husband, Jason Lindsey, 36, with blood on his clothes, according to an arrest affidavit cited by the Orlando Sentinel. The man was leaving a master bedroom closet, where his wife’s body was found.
The boy had called the Orange County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, June 10, around 6.45 p.m. and reported that his stepdad was strangling his mother, ClickOrlando reported.
The 8-year-old sounded distraught and was yelling to his stepdad to stop, according to the arrest affidavit. The Sheriff’s Office refused to release the recording of the phone call.
The boy’s mother was transported to the Orlando Regional Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, where she died of her injuries.
Jason Lindsey admitted that he had choked and stabbed his wife, but was adamant that he was doing so in self-defense, the report cited by the Sentinel said.
Boy, 8, called 911 to report mom being strangled. His stepfather now faces murder charge https://t.co/x6yo2AmXKO pic.twitter.com/xGHcI3MVZG
— Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) June 11, 2019
He told police in an interview that Tyneel had been physically abusing him for about half the time in the past six years that the two had been together. He also said that he had been stabbed by Tyneel twice in the past, because she believed he was cheating on her, according to the report.
In his version of events, according to the report, Jason said that Tyneel had confronted him about whether he was cheating on her, which caused an argument to escalate between the two in their master bedroom.
Then she “rushed” at him and scratched his face with her nails, then went to grab a small kitchen knife, and “rushed” at him again with the knife.
However, he was able to wrestle it out of her hands, and at this point, he “kinda lost it” and grabbed Tyneel’s throat and stabbed her with the knife while strangling her at the same time.
Around this time, their son heard Tyneel screaming and proceeded to call police, the arrest report said.
Jason was charged with second-degree murder with a weapon. He is being held without bond at Orange County Jail. According to The Associated Press, jail records do not list a lawyer.
Jermaine Gwinn, Tyneel’s cousin, said there’s no excuse for what Jason did.
“You took her away from her family, man,” Gwinn said, ClickOrlando reported. “She wasn’t just his wife, she was a mother, she was a sister, she was a cousin, she was an aunt.”
“My cousin is a loving person, she was a loving person. Don’t get it twisted, her life is going to live through us,” Gwinn said.
