Girl, 12, Suspected Of Killing Mom After Being Grounded

Police: Girl, Upset With Disciplinary Action, Shot Sleeping Mother In Face

DALLAS -- A 12-year-old Texas girl has been charged with killing her mother.

Police say the Dallas girl was upset about being grounded and shot her mother in the face while she slept. Elvira Walton was found by her 10-year-old son in her bed early Sunday.

An older daughter said her mother had been having trouble with the girl. Thanica Derrick said her sister had been breaking out of the house and not going to school. The 48-year-old Walton had six children and lived in a converted garage used as the family home.

Police say all of the evidence points to the 12-year-old as the only suspect in the crime.

The girl is being held in the Juvenile Justice Center.

Investigators said the incident happened about 1 a.m. Sunday when the girl was home with her mother and 10-year-old brother.

It was her brother who reportedly called police.

During the investigation, police learned the daughter was upset with her mother for disciplining her and found evidence that she may have been planning to kill her mother for some time.

Neighbors said there was a history of trouble between Walton and her daughter.

'Because she didn't want to mind and didn't want to go to school, she was hanging down the street there with those boys and that little girl ... I knew she was a troubled child,' neighbor Lashonda Washington said.

Dallas police said the family has had domestic problems in the past, saying the children's biological father once kidnapped them.

The 10-year-old boy will live with his half-sister.

Despite the murder charges, the girl is not old enough to try as an adult.

Police found a gun in the house, but investigators are not saying whether it was the weapon used in the shooting or who owned it.