Little is known about a 45-year-old Houston man who, according to authorities, killed his girlfriend Wednesday with a samurai sword. As the Houston Chronicle reports, officials say that Kenneth Wayne Lockings Jr. “nearly” decapitated Aracely Jernigan, who was found dead on Lockings’ living room floor.
According to the Chronicle, Houston police responded to a call of a “cutting in progress” at Lockings’ home. When they arrived, Jernigan, 36, was dead, a samurai sword near her body, KTRK-TV reports. Lockings’ grandmother, whose home he had gone to for coffee just hours earlier, said he had been given the sword as a Thanksgiving gift.
There is no clear motive for Jernigan’s slaying yet. KTRK, citing court filings and investigators’ reports, says that a travel bag filled with women’s clothes was found near Lockings’ door. Earlier that day, he had refused to let his sister and his father inside his home, officials say. When Lockings’ father finally made it into the house, he reportedly saw the body and convinced his son to turn himself in, KTRK reports.
Lockings’ grandmother also spoke to the Chronicle, telling the Houston paper that her grandson had well-known mental health issues.
“He’s really messed up in the head,” she said. She added that Jernigan had been living with family in Mexico for the last few months and had only recently come back to Houston.
Lockings has a lengthy rap sheet, the Chronicle reports, and was charged with assaulting a family member back in 2009, according to court records. The case was dismissed, however, after Lockings was convicted of felony cocaine possession.
He’s currently being held at the Harris County Jail without bail.
Read more at the Houston Chronicle and KTRK-TV.