18-Year-Old Held Without Bail In Mother's Stabbing Death
BROCKTON (CBS) -- An 18-year-old man who police say stabbed his mother to death Wednesday afternoon was arraigned in Brockton District Court Thursday.
Frantz Polynice is charged with murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was held without bail.
He did not show his face in court.
Police say Polynice stabbed his mother, 44-year-old Mania Meneide, inside a home on Merritt Avenue around 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Officers responded to a 911 call about a person stabbed, and when they arrived, they found Meneide in the living room. She was covered in blood, with multiple stab wounds to her neck, head, and torso.
Neighbor Maryanne Monteiro said that, when emergency crews arrived, Polynice was sitting outside on the home's deck. Prosecutors said in court Wednesday that he had blood on his hands, and that he told officers, "she is inside."
Investigators arrested Polynice after interviewing him. The described him as quiet and stoic, and said he was often looking off to the side. A knife was recovered at the scene.
After the stabbing, the suspect's grandmother ran outside for help. Monteiro said the grandmother grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the house.
"The grandson came lunging at us, and I pulled her out of there," Monteiro said.
Meneide was taken to Brockton Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
According to court documents, Polynice had recently dropped out of nursing school and was struggling with depression before he allegedly killed his mother. Documents show he had stopped eating, and just a week before the stabbing, had refused to board a plane to Haiti for which his mother had bought him a ticket.
Calvena Devoe, the mother of a friend of Polynice, said she was very shocked to hear the news of Meneide's death.
"It's just so hard for us to believe that this happened," she said. "We were just saying yesterday, 'Where is he? He's been gone for a few weeks.' And then we get this call, it's unbelievable. I just want to know he's okay."
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz called the crime "unimaginable."
"We're dealing with a terrible, tragic situaiton where an 18-year-old person murdered his 44-year-old mother," said Cruz. "How do you get your arms around that?"
According to court documents, there was tension between Meneide and Polynice because she was going to send Polynice back to Haiti. WBZ-TV's Nicole Jacobs reported that the two went to the airport Tuesday, and Polynice refused to get out of the car.
Court documents also showed the mother enrolled her son in nursing school, but he stopped going to classes, becoming depressed and refusing to eat. They said that, in the days leading up to the murder, Meneide was encouraging Polynice to eat, but he refused.
"There was something that occurred between that young man and his family," said Cruz. "But what would lead an individual to go up to that level to get a knife and do that sort of activity, I don't know, and that's what we want to find out."
Cruz said this was the second homicide in Brockton this year--and added that both were cases of domestic violence.
A motive for the attack was not yet known.
Polynice is due back in court on December 20 for a probable cause hearing.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker reports
