A Micanopy woman was arrested Saturday after claiming a homicide victim fell onto a knife.
Marion County firefighters were called to a Micanopy home Friday night in reference to a patient experiencing cardiac arrest. When they arrived, they found the victim, 19-year-old Xavier Collins, dead, along with 19-year-old Lillian Ruthelle Patterson and several small children in the residence, a sheriff’s office report states.
Initially, Patterson told firefighters that Collins had stumbled out of the bedroom, collapsed onto the floor and become unresponsive. She made no mention of injuries to Collins, but a sheriff’s detective and an investigator from the Medical Examiner’s Office located a traumatic injury to his chest.
Patterson then claimed Collins had fallen onto a knife held by one the children in the home. During a third explanation, she said both she and a small child were holding knives and Collins fell onto one of them, the report says.
Patterson earlier told detectives that she took a steak knife away from a 2-year-old child in the home. She claimed Collins then entered the room and started “wrestling” with her. She said she pushed Collins off with her left hand, causing him to fall onto the knife she was holding in her right hand, the report says.
Patterson allegedly changed her statement multiple times regarding where she was holding the knife. She also acknowledged that she had multiple opportunities to relinquish the knife before and during the time Collins was “wrestling” with her, the report says.
Patterson was arrested and charged with negligent homicide. She was being held on no bond and her next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.