Man says he killed mother after being told to clean room

A 19-year-old Bridesburg man who told police he stabbed his mother to death after arguing about cleaning his room was held for trial on murder charges Wednesday by a Philadelphia judge.

Zackary Pritchett is charged with slaying his mother, Melizza Wiley, 53, before dawn March 27 in their home in the 2800 block of Reynolds Street.

Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni also ordered Pritchett to stand trial on a charge of attempted murder in the stabbing of his grandmother Joan Wiley, 74.

The sole witness at the preliminary hearing was Homicide Detective Brian Peters, who read Pritchett's four-page statement, in which he admitted both the stabbings and making up a story that three masked men broke in and committed the crimes.

According to Pritchett's statement, he and his mother argued about 2:30 a.m. about trash in his bedroom. Pritchett stated, "I told her I didn't care at that point how my room looked."

"She got angry and hit me," the statement continued. "She ended up going to bed without another word."

Pritchett told police he cried for a while, "thinking about everything she had done, all the abuse that I've had. It just built up and I just snapped."

About 5:30, Pritchett's statement said, he got a knife from the kitchen and sneaked into his mother's third-floor bedroom, and started stabbing her as she slept. With his hands cut in the attack, and his mother awake and fighting back, he smothered her with a pillow.

Pritchett's statement said he then stabbed his grandmother, who was in a hospital bed on the first floor. He said he realized what he was doing, stopped, and told his grandmother to tell police that three men broke in and did it.

Joan Wiley is on life support and has not been able to be interviewed about the attack, according to Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore.

After the stabbings, Pritchett took his mother's pocketbook outside and threw it over a neighbor's fence, returned home, and called 911, according to the statement.

Defense attorney Daniel Conner focused on Pritchett's state of mind at the time of the crime, questioning Peters about the teen's claim that he "just snapped." Peters said he had no way of evaluating that.

Pritchett, in a later video statement, complained of physical abuse by his mother as well as their poverty and the state of the house, the prosecutor said.