A teenager accused of killing his mother in Florida has been charged in Oklahoma with the death of his father

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A teenager accused of stabbing his mother to death in Florida was released last year after charges were dropped in connection with the fatal shooting of his father in Oklahoma.

Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida, described the incident as a “cold-blooded murder” of the teenager's 39-year-old mother, which took place at his grandmother's home in Auburndale on Sunday.

“And it's not just a single murder,” Judd said, explaining that the teenager was charged with the death of his father on Feb. 14, 2023, in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. The murder charge was dropped after Oklahoma authorities could not find evidence to disprove the teen's claim that he was acting in self-defense, Judd said.

Court records do not indicate why the charges were dropped, and Lincoln County District Attorney Adam Panter did not return a call or email seeking comment Thursday. The teen's attorney in the Oklahoma case also did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press.

In March 2023, the teenager came to Charlotte County, Florida, to live with his mother.

Since then, he has attacked her several times, the sheriff said, including one domestic violence incident in which he “stomped on” her.

At one point, the teen was briefly held for psychiatric treatment under a Florida law that allows such detentions. When he was released, the teen threatened to kill himself or his mother, Judd said. Authorities then held him for three more days.

On Sunday, the teenager called 911 from his grandmother's home in Auburndale and told the dispatcher that he and his mother had gotten into a “very long argument” and that she had fallen on a knife and was bleeding.

When he met arriving officers in the front yard, “he was calm, composed and collected, not agitated, and he was covered in blood,” Judd said.

The officers found the woman and a knife in the house. The grandmother was not at home at the time.

“He didn't say, 'Mommy's here, mommy's bleeding to death, mommy needs help,'” the sheriff said. “He looked the deputy in the eye and said, 'I know my rights. I want a lawyer.'”

The sheriff said he did not know who the teenager's attorney was.

Judd said the teenager showed “zero emotion.”

Neighbors told investigators that mother and son began arguing after she arrived at the house that afternoon, Judd said. They said the teen grabbed the mother by the hair and “dragged” her into the house.

The medical examiner told investigators that based on the autopsy, “it was neither reasonable nor plausible that she died in the manner he alleged,” Judd said.

The teenager is being held at a Polk County juvenile detention center. He is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and violating a restraining order. He is not listed in jail records. The sheriff has asked prosecutors to charge him as an adult.

Judd questioned why Oklahoma authorities dropped the charges in 2023.

“Because she took him and tried to do what a mother should do, she's dead now,” he said of the teenager's mother. “Everyone who should have been special to him in his life died because they got in his way.”

An affidavit from an agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said the teen's explanation of the incident was inconsistent with the evidence and that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” the teen committed premeditated murder in the fatal shooting of his father. The affidavit said the investigator attempted to question the teen, and he asserted his right to an attorney.

Judd expressed his hope that anyone with information about his father's death would come forward.

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Miller reported from Oklahoma City.