An 18-year-old man arrested on suspicion of stabbing his mother to death in her Castle Pines apartment was staying there after he was kicked out of an addiction treatment facility, according to an arrest affidavit.
Messiah Williams was arrested just before 1 a.m. Monday after a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy found him walking naked a mile south of the apartment where his mom, Veronica Ann Davila, was found dead less than two hours earlier.
A family member who left the apartment in the 1300 block of Sweet River Circle at 11 p.m. Sunday told detectives everything seemed fine and Williams had just gotten out of the shower, sheriff’s officials wrote. He was homeless and had been kicked out of a nearby residential treatment facility on Saturday, and Davila agreed to take him in.
A second family member also said everything seemed normal before she heard Davila, 41, gasping for air from another room. When the woman walked into the kitchen, she saw Williams standing over his mother and stabbing her, she told police.
When the woman tried to intervene, Williams began stabbing her as well, and Davila tried to stop him before collapsing.
The woman who tried to intervene called 911 at 11:35 p.m. Sunday and told dispatchers she was dying, but managed to identify the person who attacked her as Williams.
She was taken to the hospital and is in critical condition but expected to survive, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. Davila had already died by the time law enforcement arrived at the apartment, and deputies said she had multiple stab wounds.
Douglas County officials determined Williams was still in the neighborhood after a resident who lived a half mile south called 911 about a naked man who opened his garbage cans outside and appeared to dump something inside.
Williams surrendered to a deputy who found him walking north on Crossbridge Circle near Westbridge Drive.
He told detectives he had not seen his mother or the second woman in “a minute” and denied hurting them.
Williams was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder, attempted murder, assault and evidence tampering, all felonies. He is set to appear in court Friday for a filing of charges hearing.
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