A 27 year old Memphis man is charged with attempted second degree murder after police say he hit his mother in the head with an aluminum baseball bat during an argument that started because she would not cook him food.
DeAngelo Billingsley was arrested Saturday at a home on Bonita Avenue in Whitehaven. Memphis police responded to a call for help and found his mother with a deep laceration to her forehead. She was able to give officers a statement at the scene before she was taken to Methodist University Hospital in critical condition for what the arrest affidavit describes as lifesaving treatment. By the time investigators reached her at the hospital, she could no longer speak, but she identified her son as the person who hurt her when they showed her a photo.
According to the affidavit, she told first responders that she and her son got into an argument about her not cooking him any food, and that it escalated quickly. Billingsley then went into her bedroom and charged at her with the bat. The two of them fought over it, and once he had full control of it again, he struck her in the head.
Billingsley was detained at the scene and taken to a police station, where investigators say he confessed. His statement matched his mother’s account. He admitted grabbing the aluminum bat from his bedroom, charging at her with it, and hitting her in the head because he had not gotten any food.
Court records show Billingsley was living with his mother at the time of the arrest. This is also not the first case between them. He was given an additional $2,000 bond for violating the conditions of his bail in a 2024 case in which his mother said he shattered her car windshield after she put him out of the house. Add that to the $50,000 bond in the current case and he is being held on $52,000 total at the Shelby County Jail.
He is charged with attempted second degree murder and domestic assault causing bodily harm. Second degree murder in Tennessee is a Class A felony, and attempting to commit a Class A felony is charged one step down as a Class B felony. That carries a possible sentence of 8 to 30 years if he is convicted.
There is no public update yet on his mother’s condition beyond the critical designation she was given when she arrived at the hospital.
