Cary strangler says he killed his mother ‘because this is what she always wanted’
Avoiding a mistrial, accused Cary strangler Brandon Lee agreed to answer a prosecutor’s questions Wednesday, testifying he choked his suicidal mother four years ago “because this is what she always wanted.”
Lee, 38, returned to the witness stand after two hours Tuesday, during which he pantomimed the choking attacks on both Christa Lee and his ex-girlfriend Krystal Hylton. After that he had declined to be cross-examined, telling Assistant District Attorney Patrick Latour, “I’m not scared of you.”
Under Latour’s questioning, Lee said his mother’s mental health had deteriorated, and she had chased him around their apartment with a knife, berating him and urging him to kill himself until he grabbed her neck.
“I felt so terrible,” Lee said, “but I felt like I couldn’t stop because this is what she always wanted. ... I took her sin from her.”
Latour asked why Lee, a grown man, did not call police when he left the apartment during his mother’s tirade and walked to a gas station to buy alcohol and cigarettes.
“Come on,” Lee said. “How could I do that to my mom? ... Let’s not go there.”
“I’m going there,” Latour said. “You’re at a telephone. ... You’re a 34-year-old man. You didn’t have to walk back to that house.”
Superior Court Judge Graham Shirley finished Tuesday’s testimony and sent jurors home after Lee told Latour he was the “real criminal” and declined to answer questions. The judge said he would consider a mistrial, which he opted against Wednesday morning, ordering Lee to respond.
Chronic alcoholism
Lee’s attorney, Jonathan Broun, has said his client suffers from chronic alcoholism stemming from childhood trauma and depression. Broun has argued that Lee “snapped” and his crime does not constitute first-degree murder.
Lee strangled his mother in 2015 out of anger over a lost job, a fed-up girlfriend and a sputtering life — finally killing the parent who nagged and nagged him into frustration, Latour said in last week’s opening arguments.
While Christa Lee’s body lay covered with ice in her Cary bathtub, her son then broke into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment, choked her, then slept on her sofa overnight with Hylton dead on the floor.
A week passed between the killings, during which time Lee was arrested for trespassing at Time Warner Cable, where he drunkenly went to confront a rival for Hylton’s affections, according to testimony. Also, during that week, while his mother lay in the bathtub, Lee got two new tattoos.
“I might as well conform to my new lifestyle, which will be in jail,” he said, showing the Polo logo on his arm Wednesday.
Lee told Latour that he broke in his ex-girlfriend’s window with the intention of catching her with another man, but when he found her alone, he only wanted to say goodbye. He testified Wednesday that he found her reaction to be cold.
“Everything shattered,” Lee said, sobbing on the witness stand. “The only person I called to have a single conversation with. ... I couldn’t get that. She just shut me out.”
“You were mad about that, right?” Latour asked.
“Yes, I was mad!” said Lee, yelling.
“You decided to take that anger out on her?” asked Latour, and later, “What are you saying to her?”
“Nothing,” said Lee. “I just hate her.”
The trial will continue Thursday.
This story was originally published October 2, 2019 at 1:32 PM.