Man charged with murder in killing of mother, teen

Benjamin Morgan Hawkes, accused of killing his mother and a teen-age boarder in a rampage in Columbia on Feb. 11, was formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder yesterday.

Hawkes, 25, appeared before a court commissioner at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, where he has been undergoing a psychiatric evaluation since the day after the killings, and was held without bail, police said.

Hawkes is accused of fatally bludgeoning and stabbing Mary Jane Hawkes, 59, and Teena Wu, 18, in the Hawkes family's home in the 4300 block of Wild Filly Court.

According to court papers, Benjamin Hawkes confessed to Howard County detectives that he killed the two women. According to the charging papers, the body of Mary Jane Hawkes was found on the first floor of the home; Wu's body was discovered on the second level.

Benjamin Hawkes' sister, who escaped the house, called 911 to tell police that her brother had a knife and was chasing her mother, according to the documents.

Police have said that Benjamin Hawkes met them at the door covered in blood.