ROCKVILLE, Md. –
A Montgomery County man has been charged in the killing of his 87-year-old grandmother after he turned himself in to police Sunday morning.
Spencer Dillon Hamilton, 27, walked into the Rockville City Police station around 8 a.m. Sunday and reported that he had just killed his grandmother, Pauline Yvonne Titus-Dillon, authorities said.
Officers responded to Titus-Dillon’s home on Tribunal Lane in Potomac, where they discovered her body with fatal stab wounds and other trauma.
What we know:
According to investigators, Hamilton admitted to waiting in his grandmother’s bedroom closet and attacking her after she exited the bathroom around 4 a.m.
According to court documents, he stabbed her in the back and head, strangled her and struck her multiple times in the face and head. He then moved her body to the bathroom and attempted to clean the scene before fleeing with her credit card, cell phone and laptop.
Hamilton was taken into custody with the weapon allegedly used in the attack, officials said.
The investigation is ongoing.
What’s next:
In court Monday, Hamilton appeared via closed-circuit TV from jail and said he wanted to represent himself against the advice of the judge, the defense attorney and his family.
FOX 5 DC spoke to a criminal and civil litigator unconnected to the case who says representing yourself in any case is uncommon, especially when it comes to first-degree murder.
“He could be shooting himself in the foot and putting himself at a severe disadvantage in a case that has the highest stakes of any criminal cases there is,” said civil and criminal litigator Eric Faddis.
The judge ordered an evaluation for Hamilton and they will hold his bond hearing next Monday.
