A teenager has been charged with murder after she allegedly beat her grandmother to death with a mallet in front of her home.
Jailen Mia Lupton was arrested at the residence in Irvington, Alabama on Saturday after police found her 70-year-old grandmother, Diane Trest, dead in the front yard.
A mallet was found nearby according to the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office.
Lupton was also charged with second-degree burglary in relation to the incident.
A neighbor told investigators that Lupton forced her way inside her home, pushed her and demanded her car keys.
Lupton allegedly told the neighbor that she had just killed her own grandmother.
Two other witnesses told investigators they were flagged down by a woman who frantically said Trest had been beaten to death by Lupton.
Jailen Mia Lupton was arrested at the scene of the horrific crime in Irvington, Alabama
Lupton then visited a neighbor’s home in an effort to steal her car and told the neighbor she had just killed her grandmother
The motorist called 911 to report the incident.
Neighbor Cheryl Edwards told WDHN: ‘There’s always been issues next door. Ever since I’ve lived here, the cops have been there.’
Edwards and Trest were neighbors for 10 years before Saturday’s tragedy.
‘She told me about her children, her sons and her daughters and her grandchildren, and she said they’re troubled.’
Edwards said Trest would often pop over for a visit covered in scratches and bruises, insisting they were caused by her dogs.
‘We kept telling her, “They’re going to kill you one day.” They’re either going to drug you or kill you.
‘This is senseless. How can somebody do this to a grandparent that has raised you practically your entire life?’
Trest has been remembered by loved ones as a kind hearted Christian woman.
Neighbors had warned Trest she was at risk. She has been remembered as a kind hearted Christian woman
One of Trest’s nieces wrote in a moving tribute: ‘Pray for our family please we need them.
‘She was one of the best, she may not have had much but boy did she have love. She never met a stranger and would tell anyone about Jesus.
‘She in now walking the streets of gold. The hard life and struggles that she went through is over.’
Lupton will appear in court for a bond hearing on Monday morning.
