Police: Man attacks mom, reads Bible to her as she dies

HOUTZDALE, Pa. — A Clearfield County man beat and slashed his mother because he feared she would have him arrested for taking her computer, then read the Bible to her as he watched her die, state police said.

Jesse James Campbell told friends that he wanted to kill his mother, Cindy Jo Coleman, because she demanded that he return a computer he stole from her by 8 a.m. yesterday, police said.

Campbell went to his mother’s home before the deadline, grabbed a five-pound plastic weight and hit Ms. Coleman repeatedly in the face with it, police said. He also choked his mother and then grabbed a steak knife and stabbed her, police said.

Mr. Campbell later told his girlfriend things "got messy" when he confronted his mother about the computer and that he read his mother the Bible as she lay dying, police said.

A friend of Mr. Campbell and his girlfriend told investigators that Mr. Campbell believed his mother "was going to send him back to prison and he said that he wanted to kill her," police said in an affidavit.

Mr. Campbell, 20, of Houtzdale, was being held in the Clearfield County Jail without bond on criminal homicide, aggravated assault and other charges.

Mr. Campbell was tried as an adult on theft and receiving stolen property charges in 2005 because a judge found Mr. Campbell "exhausted all attempts by the Juvenile Court System to rehabilitate him," according to online Pennsylvania court records.

He was sentenced to one to three years in state prison after pleading guilty to theft and receiving stolen property. It was not clear if Mr. Campbell was still on probation or parole related to that case.