Pottstown woman is charged with murder as domestic violence rises in Montgomery County

A fight over the contents of a cell phone led a Pottstown woman to grab a kitchen knife Thursday night and fatally slash her boyfriend’s neck in their apartment, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and Pottstown Police Chief Mick Markovich said Friday.

The slaying is part of a trend of domestic violence since the coronavirus pandemic has forced county residents to shelter at home, officials said.

“This is the second tragic domestic-violence death in a week in Pottstown,” Steele said. “Both murders occurred after arguments by two people who lived together.

“Staying at home together, as we all are now doing, comes with stresses that may trigger domestic violence. The analysis by the Montgomery County Detective Bureau showed that domestic violence is up by 8% to 9% in the county since the coronavirus crisis began.”

In the latest incident, Caitlin Celina Mauras, 21, is charged with first-degree murder and related crimes in the death of Jaylin Thomas, 24, with whom she had lived in the 300 block of North Charlotte Street for the last six months, authorities said.

Mauras told detectives she and Thomas had argued about the television program Family Guy before he went to sleep Thursday, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.

“Later in the evening, Mauras looked at Thomas’ cell phone while he was asleep. She found he was viewing the Twitter account of his former girlfriend. Mauras confronted Thomas and threw his phone against the living room wall,” the affidavit says.

She told detectives Thomas then pushed her against the wall and tried to grab his phone, and the pair fell to the floor, the document says.

Mauras then walked to the kitchen sink, grabbed a knife — she told detectives she thought it was a spatula — returned to the living room and took a “whack” at Thomas to “scare him” and “hurt him,” according to the affidavit.

Thomas held his neck before collapsing to the floor. His body was removed from the apartment Friday morning and an autopsy concluded that his death was a homicide, police said.

The data showing a rise in domestic violence resulted from analysis of thousands of 911 calls and police reports over the Jan. 1 to April 12 periods during 2019 and 2020, Steele’s office said.

The detective bureau analyzed domestic incident calls to the 911 emergency call center from Jan. 1 to March 10, and compared the numbers to domestic calls from March 11, 2020 — when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a worldwide health pandemic — to April 12. Officials also analyzed data for those same dates from police reports filed by 34 of 50 departments after they responded to incidents.

Those needing help with domestic violence issues in Montgomery County are asked to contact Laurel House, laurel-house.org, 800-642-3150, or the Women’s Center of Montgomery County, wcmontco.org, 800-773-2424. Both numbers are 24-hour hotlines.