Payton murder trial: Day 2

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Testimony continued for a second day in the trial of a Paris, Ill. teen charged with stabbing his mother to death.

Terry Payton was arrested in June 2011, after he told police he had stabbed his mother Kathie Payton. Ms. Payton was found dead in their home.

On Friday afternoon, jurors heard a recording of Payton’s second interview with State Police after his arrest. In that recording, he gave a detailed account of the hours before the stabbing.

Payton said he awoke in mid-morning and was soon confronted by his mother over whether he had locked the door of their home the night before. Payton said the two also argued over allegations from his mother that he stole $700 from her. Payton said he never stole the money.

Through the day, the argument between the two escalated. Payton said he knew that his mother had been drinking and that, when he tried to pour a bottle of his mother’s alcohol down the drain, she attacked him.

Payton said he tried to fend her off and, when he saw her reach for a large knife, he grabbed another knife and stabbed her seven times.

“I wasn’t (angry) at all,” Payton said. “I was just afraid.”

Payton also described his emotions immediately after the stabbing.

“I thought, ‘I’m sorry,’” Payton said in the recording. “Then I thought, ‘What have I done?’”

When pressed by police, Payton also admitted that he hit his mother’s head against the floor three times during the course of the confrontation but before he stabbed her.

He told police that, after the stabbing, he left home to clear his head and walked to a nearby Wal-Mart and McDonalds. Payton said he then returned home, moved his mother’s body and cleaned up the blood in the kitchen. He said he then returned to Walmart and bought a phone which he used to text a close friend about the incident.

When asked by police why he did not call police or an ambulance immediately, Payton said he hadn’t known what to do.

“In hindsight, I would have done more,” Payton said in the recorded statement. “I just didn’t know what to do.”

In the recorded interview, Payton also told police that the Department of Children and Family Services had been called to his home in the past on occasions when Ms. Payton locked Terry out of the home or on occasions when the two argued about money.

Payton also told police in the interview that he had been told by others that he has a form of autism.