The Tehachapi man accused of stabbing his own mother 42 times, then going on the run before he was caught in Arizona, alleges he was molested as a child and blames his mom.
That, according to court documents obtained by Bakersfield television station KERO.
Matthew Jensen, 52, was arrested in Kingman, Arizona, in late October 2017 on a second-degree murder charge. He’s accused of killing his mother, 75-year-old Barbara Teague.
Investigators say Teague was found dead in her Tehachapi home , and after a postmortem exam it was determined that the cause of death was multiple stab wounds and incised wounds.
According to the Kern County coroner, the crime happened on Oct. 23, 2017. Jensen was extradited to Kern County in November of 2017.
Last month, investigators found a document — dated Nov. 23, 2009 — on Jensen’s laptop claiming that Jensen had been molested as a child. He added that he was “very critical of his mother” because he felt she didn’t do enough to stop the abuse.
A witness also told deputies that Jensen was having financial problems with the IRS, back child support and that he had defaulted on his truck loan. According to the documents, the witness said Jensen had also displayed signs of depression before Teague’s murder.
Earlier court documents show Jensen told investigators he was “under Russian mind control” and that he was hearing voices. He said “the voices had told him to kill his mother. … ‘I did what they told me, I killed my own mother.'”
About 20 minutes after he stabbed her, documents state he loaded the family dog into his mother’s car and started driving east.
Jensen said “the pain and the guilt of killing his mother caused him to cut both of his wrists with a Leatherman-style tool, located in the car. Jensen said he also stabbed himself twice in the chest in attempt to commit suicide.”
When asked why he tried to commit suicide Jensen said, “I knew what I had done”.
Jensen has already pleaded not guilty to second degree murder and is expected back in court June 20 for a status conference.