Slain woman's son had history of mental illness, family says

MAYS LANDING, N.J. - Some in his family had long described Ronald Weed as a "ticking time bomb" whose schizophrenia would someday lead him to harm those closest to him.

Those fears - and the 41-year-old's decade-long struggle with mental illness - apparently turned into grim reality this week as a shackled and handcuffed Weed appeared yesterday in Atlantic County Superior Court to face charges of killing his mother in her home Tuesday and attempting to murder his 12-year-old twin nieces who were visiting their grandmother.

None of his family attended the hearing.

They were preparing for the funeral of Loretta Weed, 65, of the 400 Block of S. Nectar Avenue in Galloway Township.

And they were keeping bedside vigils in an Atlantic City hospital for 12-year-old Kimberly and Courtney McCarten, of Huntsville, Ala.

Kimberly underwent surgery for the wounds police said her uncle inflicted with a knife, an ax and a ceramic figurine and was clinging to life yesterday afternoon in AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center. She was listed in critical condition.

Courtney also underwent surgery for her injuries and was listed in critical condition at AtlantiCare.

One of the girls had managed to call 911 at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and report that their uncle was attacking their grandmother, police said.

Their mother, also named Loretta, flew from their home in Alabama to be by their side as soon as she got word about the Tuesday morning attacks.

The girls' parents are divorced and the twins traditionally spent their summers with their grandmother in New Jersey so they could visit with their father, Charles McCarten, of Egg Harbor Township, and their extended family, relatives said. They enjoy the horses, dogs and other pets that their animal-lover grandmother kept.

The elder Loretta Weed, a retired NJ Transit driver, took in her troubled son, who reportedly hadn't held a job in years. She allowed him to live in her home even after he had threatened her life with a gun years ago, family said.

After attending college and working as a dealer in several Atlantic City casinos, Ronald Weed began acting "strangely" in his 20s, getting into fightsand imagining slights and whispers behind his back, family said. He had difficulty holding jobs. He worked for a time as a stone mason, his father Franklin Weed said.

The gun incident seemed finally to push Weed toward help.

"He imagined that his mother was trying to poison him when she fed him dinner and he threatened her with the gun," said his stepmother of 22 years, June Weed of Martinez, Ga. "But she would never give up on him.

"When I'm sure most other people would have wanted to have had nothing to do with him after something like that, she took him into her home to try to help him," June Weed said.

But it was a situation Franklin and June Weed spent a lot of time worrying about.

"We always felt he was like a ticking time bomb," Franklin Weed said of his son. "We never stopped trying to get him help."

After the gun incident, Ronald Weed spent about three weeks in Ancora Psychiatric Hospital, where he was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and was prescribed medication to treat it.

"But he would never take his meds," said Kathy Jordan, a family friend who lives a few streets from the Weeds. "Loretta would confide in me and tell me that she worried about him, but that there was only so much that she could do. She said she really did not want to see him institutionalized. She said it would break her heart."

Others contend that the loving mother and other family might not have been aware "just how bad" Weed's mental illness was.

"We bought a video from the A&E Channel of a documentary they did on schizophrenia and gave it to Loretta so she could see how quickly they can snap," June Weed said. "We always thought he would end up hurting her."

Raymond Weed Jr., Ronald Weed's nephew, said of the attack Tuesday: "We don't know what set him off."

At his court appearance yesterday, a bearded Ronald Weed, who wore orange jail garb, glanced several times at the television cameras and reporters. Then he stared squarely at the judge and responded in a clear, calm voice.

Weed said he understood the charges against him, that he could not afford a lawyer, that he had been treated for mental illness, but that he was not under a doctor's care.

Asked whether he understood that his mother had died, Weed told the judge, "Uh, yes, I understand, I understand. I'd just like to plead the Fifth."

Judge Michael Donio increased Weed's bail from $600,000 to $1 million cash after upgrading charges from three counts of attempted to murder to one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder and possession of weapons for unlawful purposes.

Weed's mother survived for approximately five hours, but was pronounced dead at 1:55 p.m., according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.

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