Pearland teen arrested for murdering his grandmother

Sad news from Pearland: On Friday, a 73-year-old grandmother was beaten and stabbed to death by her grandson, who had just been released from jail a few hours earlier.

According to a neighbor, 19-year-old James Sawyer suddenly flew into a violent rage and began beating and stabbing his grandmother, Evangelina Sawyer, to death Friday evening in her home on Garden Road. Sawyer's brother said he tried to stop the attack, but Sawyer began beating him as well; he ran to the home of a neighbor, Robert Holman, for help. “His brother locked the door and he looked in the window and he could see his grandmother on the ground and his brother was just kicking her in the face over and over again,” Holman told KHOU. Police received several 911 calls around 7:45 p.m.; when they showed up at the house, the grandmother was dead and Sawyer was hiding on the property. He was immediately arrested. "He was found on the property, and apparently left the house through the back door. The murder weapon was also found," Pearland Police Sgt. Kevin Nichols told the Chronicle. "We have made calls to the house before and have arrested him before."

Police said Sawyer has been arrested before for marijuana possession, burglary, evading arrest and interfering with an emergency call. They're not sure what made him kill his grandmother, but Holman said it was just a matter of time before Sawyer did something rash: “Something was going to happen from that kid sooner of later — he was trouble.” Holman is being held in the Brazoria County Jail on $250,000 bail.