EVERETT — A Bothell woman accused of bludgeoning her mother to death with a glass drinking mug was charged Friday with second-degree murder.
Police discovered Lila Donaldson’s battered body inside her home Oct. 27. Her daughter, Terie Davidson, had called 911, asking to be taken to a psychiatric hospital. Davidson has a history of struggling with mental illness, court papers said.
Davidson, 42, met officers on the front porch. She allegedly told police she wanted to go to jail.
She asked officers to retrieve her shoes from inside, but then attempted to bar them from going into the house, court papers said.
“It’s really bad,” Davidson reportedly said.
An officer went inside to check on Donaldson, 81. She was found on the floor in the master bedroom with an obvious head wound. Paramedics attempted life-saving measures, but Donaldson died in the back of an ambulance several minutes later.
Davidson was taken to a Kirkland hospital after she told police she’d taken a lot of pills.
She was later booked into the Snohomish County Jail.
Davidson had been convicted in September of violating a no-contact order. A judge in June had ordered Davidson to stay away from her mother after being convicted of assaulting the elderly woman, court papers said.
In August, a motion was made in Snohomish County Superior Court to cancel the court order.
Donaldson said her daughter was stable and had been on medications for three months, court papers said.
“She is my caregiver. I am 81 years old and need her at home,” she wrote.
The defendant told police after she was arrested last month that she knew she wasn’t supposed to have contact with her mother, but she didn’t have any other place to live, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Randall Yates wrote in charging documents.
“I took a chance at being there and I harmed her,” Davidson allegedly said.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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