LIBERTY, Mo. — A Clay County judge on Thursday denied the request of an attorney to release a 15-year-old boy into the custody of his grandmother.
The teen, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile, is charged with burglary, assault and armed criminal action.
The eighth grader is accused of breaking into the home of a 43-year-old Excelsior Springs woman in March and using a broken whiskey bottle to slice her face, arms, hands and legs.
The suspect was arrested Tuesday afternoon at Excelsior Springs Middle School.
On Thursday, the judge ruled the teen will remain in detention due to the severity of the allegations.
The teenager’s father and grandmother left the courthouse and declined to comment.
On Monday, March 10, Tiffany Yelton was home asleep and her two middle school aged children were in school, when a hoodie-wearing intruder climbed through a rear bedroom window and got inside the family’s home.
Neighbors say once inside, the young intruder broke the whiskey bottle and repeatedly cut Tiffany.
Police say the teen suspect lives in the same neighborhood and was seen by officers wearing a bandage near the victims home that morning. Court documents indicate the teen told police he had injured himself while whittling a stick and that his cell phone, two knives and a carved stick were stolen from his porch overnight. Police say it was all evidence linked to the suspect through DNA, but they still don’t know a motive.
“We still struggle with a motive in this case. It is odd, it’s not the type of thing that typically happens here. So we still hope that someday we might know a motive,” Capt. Reno said earlier this week.
Police say on the morning of the March 10 attack, investigators collected a large amount of evidence, including DNA, finger and footprints. They say lab results linked the teen suspect to the attack.
