MICANOPY, Fla. – The Marion County Sheriff’s Office on Friday arrested Lillian Patterson and charged her with negligent manslaughter.
Marion County Fire Rescue responded to a home in Micanopy on Friday night after a cardiac arrest call. When they arrived, Xavier Collins, 19, was found dead in the home. Patterson, 19, and several small children were also in the home.
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The Sheriff’s Office said Patterson told Fire Rescue that Patterson stumbled out of a bedroom and collapsed on the floor. The Medical Examiner’s Office located a traumatic injury to Collins’s chest. Patterson first told investigators that Collins fell onto a knife being held by one of the children in the home.
During another round of questioning, Patterson claimed both she and a child were holding knives and Collins fell onto one of the knives.
Patterson was then taken to the Sheriff’s Office wherein another round of questioning told detectives she took a steak knife from a 2-year-old. She said she was holding the knife in her right hand while scrolling through her phone with her left. She then told deputies Collins entered the room and began “wrestling” with her.
She told deputies she pushed Collins off with her left hand and he fell onto the knife.
The Sheriff’s Office said Patterson admitted she had multiple opportunities to relinquish the knife before and during the “wrestling” match.