The Keith & Sons Soul Food Cafe in Seat Pleasant, Md. (screengrab via WRC-TV). Insets: Raykia Poston (top) and James Culley (bottom), via Prince George’s County Police Dept. Poston faces first-degree murder charges connected to the stabbing death of Mervyn Daniels.
Police are searching for a woman they say stabbed and ultimately killed a 67-year-old man with a bread knife after she erupted into a violent fit of rage over a missing $10.
Raykia Poston, a 21-year-old woman from Capitol Heights, Maryland, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Mervyn Daniel, a part-time employee of the Keith & Sons Soul Food Cafe in Seat Pleasant, Maryland. Prince George’s County Police filed the charges against Poston after apprehending and charging Jesse Culley, a 37-year-old man who shared Poston’s residence and is believed to be Poston’s boyfriend.
The Washington Post first reported that Culley was charged as an accessory to murder on July 24.
Police said witnesses told them they watched as Poston and Culley got into “verbal altercation” with Daniel at the cafe. Things reportedly became so tense inside the cafe that employees were forced to separate Poston, Culley and Daniel, but that didn’t end things entirely.
After the confrontation, charging papers indicate Poston allegedly returned to the restaurant with Culley not long after she had walked across the street to an AutoZone auto supply store. On her return, police say she breezed into the kitchen before launching into the second and final altercation with Daniel. Witnesses told police they heard Poston yelling “I will kill everybody in this store!” moments before Daniel was attacked.
Culley, meanwhile, had allegedly entered the kitchen through the back while brandishing a piece of wood. Poston went on to stab Daniels with a bread knife snatched off a nearby counter. In the moment, she had become totally infuriated over $10 she claimed had gone missing, police said.
Culley and Poston escaped moments after the stabbing and according to surveillance footage reviewed by police, left together in Culley’s vehicle.
According to charging papers for Culley, a bloody knife and cell phone were found hidden on a shelf among cooking supplies in the cafe’s kitchen. A broken metal pole was also found on the scene.
Daniel, who was found unresponsive inside of the restaurant near its bathroom and with blood visible around him, was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
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