Pubdate: Sat, 08 May 2004
Source: New York City Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2004 Newsday, Inc.
Contact: http://cf.newsday.com/newsdayemail/email.cfm
Website: http://www.nynewsday.com/news/printedition/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3362
Authors: Luis Perez and Rocco Parascandola, Staff Writers

MAN STABS MOTHER SEVERELY

A Brooklyn mother was stabbed Friday by her emotionally disturbed son,
a 21-year-old marijuana addict known for stripping to his underwear
and smoking joints in a nearby park, according to police and neighbors.

Yvonne Stewart, 47, was naked and covered in blood when she emerged,
screaming for help, from her home on East 103rd Street in Canarsie
just after 10:20 a.m.

She fled down the block, collapsing on the front lawn of her friend's
home two doors down.

An ambulance crew rushed her to Brookdale University Hospital and
Medical Center, where she was in critical condition late Friday.

Her oldest son, Kevon Stewart, fled the scene but was arrested a few
blocks away and charged with assault and criminal possession of a
weapon, a kitchen knife that was recovered at the scene, police said.

Police late Friday were still trying to determine what sparked the
violence.

Yvonne Stewart's ex-boyfriend, Jerry Smikle, and her neighbors said
she and her son were constantly fighting, most notably over Kevon
Stewart's marijuana use. He was often seen in nearby Canarsie Beach
Park, stripped to his boxer shorts and smoking a joint, neighbors said.

Police said that at least once, the son was hospitalized for emotional
problems, and neighbors said police were regularly called to the
family's home because of the son's outbursts.

"She's a very good mother and he's not a bad kid, but every couple of
days he's back into the hospital," said Carmen McKoy, 43. "Back and
forth. He's not a violent kid, so nobody would know that he could do
something like that.

"I don't think he realizes what he does because he loves his
mother."

Yvonne Stewart used to work in a bank but quit to care for her
12-year-old autistic son, Rashad.

Each morning, neighbors said, she escorts him outside and waits until
his school bus arrives.

Shortly after she went back inside Friday, screams pierced the
block.

"Call 911! Call 911," neighbor Mark Zhang remembered hearing Stewart
yell as she stumbled out of her home. "There was a lot of blood. She
must have gotten stabbed 10 or 15 times because there were a lot of
wounds."

Stewart collapsed on McKoy's lawn. McKoy was not home at the
time.

"She was coming to me and she fell right there," McKoy said. "I'm
sorry to my heart that it that way. ... I feel bad for Mother's Day
for her."

Smikle, who has two children -- Rashad and a daughter, Kerica, with
the victim -- said he had tried, without success, to get Kevon to stop
smoking marijuana. He said Kevon's drug use, coupled with emotional
problems, forced him to drop out of school and has led to frequent
hospital stays.

He said, "I'm sad. I'm very sad." 
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