An ex-con beat his elderly mother to death with a skateboard inside their shared New York City apartment and then smoked meth next to her corpse, prosecutors said during a Wednesday arraignment hearing.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Wei Hou, 41, faces murder charges after he was tied to the slaying of his 76-year-old mother Zhu Hou just days before Christmas.
Authorities said Wou, who has a prior conviction for cocaine possession, left his mother with a shattered spine, several broken ribs and a bludgeoned skull in the Dec. 19 attack.
Ms. Hou’s body wasn’t located until her other son came by the apartment to check on her, prosecutors said, and found her remains underneath blankets and the bloody skateboard on top.
Officials said Hou was in the same room as his dead mother and had a used meth pipe at his side.
The brother tried to stop Hou from leaving, but he fled. Prosecutors said his estranged wife bought him a train ticket to Albany and booked multiple hotels for him to stay in as he evaded law enforcement.
U.S. Marshals eventually tracked down the suspect on Christmas Eve, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Hou moved in with his mother in October after he was released from prison on the cocaine conviction. He had served four months of a two-year sentence before being allowed out on parole.
The district attorney’s office said the two fought often because Ms. Hou believed her son was stealing her money to get his drug fix.
Ms. Hou’s other son last saw her the day before she was killed. He had dropped by to fix his mother’s bedroom door, which prosecutors said Hou had busted earlier in December.
