Crime & Safety

Report: Man Who Killed Mother and Teen Has Chance of Release

The man who killed his mother and a teen in Ellicott City is currently confined to a psychiatric hospital.


A man who killed his mother and an 18-year-old girl inside his family's Ellicott City home in 2001 has a chance for conditional release from Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center after the Court of Appeals ruled the decision to keep him at the psychiatric hospital was reached incorrectly, according to a Baltimore Sun report.

Benjamin Moore Hawkes was found not criminally responsible due to mental illness for bludgeoning his 59-year-old mother, Mary Hawkes, and Teena Wu, 18, inside the Hawkes' Ellicott City home in 2001, when Hawkes was 25, according to the paper.

Since then, Hawkes has been confined to the psychiatric hospital, but gained privileges such as attending classes at Howard Community College, reported the Sun.

Now an administrative judge will reexamine Hawkes' case to determine if he can be released to an outside facility to receive psychiatric care after the Court of Appeals found a Howard County judge "relied on too stringent a standard in denying Hawkes' request," wrote the paper.

Read more on BaltimoreSun.com.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.