ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A distraught 8-year-old boy called 911 Monday evening to report that his stepfather had “strangled” his mother in an Orange County apartment, deputies said.
Deputies said in the call the child begged his stepfather, Jason Lindsey, 36, to stop.
When deputies arrived at the apartment complex on Sand Lake Road before 7 p.m. they said they found Lindsey with blood on his clothing, and the child’s mother, identified as 38-year-old Tynell Lindsey, unresponsive on the floor of a closet.
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Deputies said Tynell Lindsey was pronounced dead at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Michael O'Donnell told Channel 9 on Tuesday that he has known Jason Lindsey for more than 20 years. He described the couple's marriage as toxic.
"I can't tell you how many times I've told him on separate occasions that there relationship should not be," he said. "That's a toxic relationship when you are slicing and cutting each other, trying to kill each other. That's just ridiculous."
An arrest affidavit said Jason Lindsey told investigators that he had been married to Tynell Lindsey for six years and that she began physically abusing him three years ago.
He told detectives that she accused him of cheating, started scratching his face and lunged at him with a knife before he began stabbing and strangling her, the affidavit said.
Lindsey was arrested on charges of second-degree murder. He is being held without bail at the Orange County Jail.
Channel 9 later learned that when Lindsey's own mother was killed by his stepfather 18 years ago.
Lindsey's mother, Theresa Henderson, was shot and killed by Theodore Rodgers on Valentine's Day in 2001.
"It really traumatized him in a really severe way," said Lindsey's friend Michael O'Donnell.
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