GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A teenager accused of attacking his mother with a hedge trimmer because she deleted rap videos on his phone is now competent to stand trial, and the criminal case against him will resume.
Ramone Waupoose, 16, is charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for the July 16 incident at a Suamico home.
Competency refers to the defendant’s ability to understand the court proceedings and assist in his own defense. The case had been on hold while Waupoose received psychiatric treatment, but the defense did not object to the most recent report deeming him competent, court records show.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 1, court records show.
According to the criminal complaint, a woman called police because her son, who she described as autistic, had attacked her.
Knowing he may be upset – and for his protection – the woman had taken all of the knives out of the house and put them in her car.
“This all started on Monday, Ramone was supper ubber ubber pissed that he was snatched back after running away. He was also mad that I had deleted rap videos off of his YouTube. He went to bed Monday night and I was on his phone trying to figure out the parental controls. He came up and grabbed the phone from my hands and went to lock himself in his room downstairs,” the woman’s statement says. “Ramone went back to his room and I again texted him about going to eat and asked if he was going to come. He replied back “no”. I told him to not leave the house and I monitored him through the cameras. I could tell that he was very angry. When he ate he was pacing like a caged tiger. His behavior got creepier after we got home then started to gather up all the knives, any sharp kitchen utensils, or anything sharp. I also took the drill, hammers, and screw drivers and locked them in my car. I watched the cameras and saw Ramone go to the garage and was searching for something. He was looking around the toolbox and a mattress that was leaned up next to it. His whole behavior really freaked me out. The sheers he found must have been behind the mattress. At this time I was more concerned that Ramone was going to hurt himself than us. I never thought he would run away much less attack us.”
After the lights starting turning on and off in the house, she found him by the power box. He called her names, and attacked her with the pruning shears. She used a garbage can to defend herself before she escaped.
The woman was bleeding from the face and was injured on her head, face, arms and back. Police located two-foot pruning shears from the scene.
Police recovered Waupoose’s phone and found messages describing his plans to kill his mother and messages threatening to “kill and gut his ex-girlfriend,” the complaint states.
In Wisconsin, those between 10 and 16 years old charged with most homicide-related counts are charged in adult, not juvenile court. There is a mechanism at a later stage of the case for the defense to request the case be moved to juvenile court, but such requests are not automatic and require a judge’s approval.
