A man accused of stabbing his mother to death was denied bail Monday in Carroll County?s second homicide this year.
District Court Judge JoAnn Ellinghaus-Jones denied bail to Eric Raymond Yates, 39, of Finksburg, because of the seriousness of the first- and second-degree murder charges against him.
Yates appeared on a TV monitor from the county detention center in an orange jumpsuit. He did not say anything in his defense, nor plead for bail.
State police found Yates? mother, Christine Windstein, 57, lying dead Friday night on the floor of her mobile home at Todd Village Mobile Home Park. She had been stabbed several times.
Police arrested Yates about 11 p.m. Friday on a bench outside the Westminster branch of the Carroll County Public Library.
Yates, a pizza delivery driver at a local Papa John?s, lived with Windstein, who police said had been dead for days.
Her death stunned residents of the quiet trailer park off Old Westminster Pike.
“That?s too close to home for me,” said Joe Willard Sr., as he walked his bike past the trailer where Windstein was found. “There?s no utopia anywhere. It?s terrible.”
Other neighbors said they never suspected any conflicts between the mother and son.
Yates pleaded guilty in May 2002 in Baltimore County District Court to theft of property valued at less than $500.
A judge was assigning Yates a public defender Monday. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 30 in Carroll Circuit Court.
In the county?s other homicide this year, six counselors at Bowling Brook Preparatory School were charged with reckless endangerment in the January death of Isaiah Simmons, 17, of Baltimore.
Examiner reporter Kelsey Volkmann contributed to this article.
