Son quarreled over grades, police say

Lynn R. McKain, director of public relations at McDonogh School (left), is embraced by Anita Hilson, director of admissions. McKain answered questions from the media after student Lewin C. Powell III was arrested Wednesday and accused of killing his mother. (Sun photo by Kim Hairston / May 15, 2008)

Lewin Carlton Powell III is an honor student who played in the jazz band at McDonogh School. Neighbors in Towson's Riderwood community saw the 16-year-old boy as responsible and polite.

His mother, Donna Rosemarie Campbell-Powell, worked for the county, and colleagues said she spoke proudly of her son.

But a man who lived next door said their relationship was sometimes tense. And on Tuesday afternoon, the teenager would later tell police, a quarrel about the teenager's grades spiraled to the point that he reached for a baseball bat.

He told investigators that he beat his mother to death, then hid her body. And the next morning, according to court records, as his father slept on the couch, the teenager grabbed the bat again.

Yesterday, Powell was ordered held without bail to await trial on adult charges of murder and attempted murder. At the same time, grief counselors were dispatched to both McDonogh and the Baltimore County budget and finance office, where the 39-year-old mother worked. The father, Lewin Carlton Powell Jr., having been treated for his injuries at Sinai Hospital, also stopped by the county finance office yesterday.

Lynn McKain, a McDonogh spokeswoman, said, "This is a really sad and tough day. Our deepest sympathies go out to Lewin Powell's family for the tragedy they suffered."

It is the second time in three months that a county teenager has been accused of killing a parent. The two cases account for half of Baltimore County's 10 homicides this year.

Police were called to the Powells' home on Alston Road at 10:03 on Wednesday morning.

Campbell-Powell had not shown up for work or called to say she'd be late, and her co-workers were worried, said Keith Dorsey, director of the office. The assistant claims adjustor, who impressed co-workers with her punctuality and impeccable wardrobe, was always at her desk by 8:15 a.m. - at the latest.

Two of Campbell-Powell's co-workers called McDonogh and learned that the woman's son was absent, too. More worried, they drove to her house to make sure everyone was OK, Dorsey said.

The woman's Toyota Corolla was in the driveway of her split-level home, but no one answered the door. So the co-workers called police.

When officers arrived, they found the younger Powell and his father in the backyard. The father was bleeding from "significant wounds" to his head, according to court records.

"Thank God you're here," the elder Powell told the officers, according to court records. "My son killed my wife."

Police found the woman's body in the garage, covered with a blanket and some debris. She had suffered multiple blunt force injuries. And detectives found what appeared to be bloodstains in several locations throughout the house, according to court records.

The father later told police that he had worked until midnight, driven home and gone to sleep on the couch. He awoke to find his son hitting him on the head with a baseball bat. He tried to run out of the house but was stopped by his son, who blurted out during the struggle that he had killed his mother, according to court documents.

The boy later confirmed to police detectives that he killed his mother and intended to kill his father as well, according to the documents.

Someone who answered the door yesterday evening at the Woodlawn home of Campbell-Powell's relatives said the family was too distraught to discuss the incident.

Paul Kozloski, who lives next door to the Powells, described the mother as a good neighbor but said she seemed too controlling and critical of her son, who recently seemed especially sad.

"He had, for someone his age, the shortest leash you could have on a child," said Kozloski, a retired probation officer who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years. "I never saw a friend, except his cousin, over there at the house. It was all about academics and sports, and it was pressure, pressure, pressure. ... I think he snapped."

The neighbor said one of his teenage daughters told him that Powell recently expressed concern about telling his mother that he had earned a C in his Advanced Placement history class.

Related topic galleries: Teen-agers, People, Jazz Music, Health and Safety at School, Juvenile Delinquency, Assault, Murder

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