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 Department)
Raykia Poston, 21, who police say fatally stabbed a 62-year-old Washington Post employee over a dispute involving $10, was arrested on Monday after several weeks at large.
As police continued their search for Poston, a resident of Capitol Heights, Maryland, they charged her late last month with first-degree murder for the July 8 slaying of Mervyn Daniel, a fellow Capitol Heights resident.
Prince George’s County police first filed the charges upon apprehending Jesse Culley, Poston’s live-in boyfriend, on July 24. Culley, 37, was also charged as an accessory to murder.
Authorities found Mervyn Daniel, a mailroom assistant at one of the Washington Post’s printing facilities before his death who had been with the paper since 1979, unconscious inside Keith & Sons Soul Food Café in Seat Pleasant, Maryland on July 8. Daniel suffered from multiple stab wounds.
According to arrest records, police reported that witnesses saw Poston and Culley get into a “verbal altercation” with Daniel while all three were inside the café. After exchanging words, Poston reportedly left the Seat Pleasant restaurant and went across the street on foot to visit a nearby auto supply store. Poston returned moments later, entered the restaurant’s kitchen and confronted Daniel.
Witnesses said Poston told onlookers, “I will kill everybody in this store!” before attacking Daniel with a bread knife she took off a counter inside of the restaurant. Witnesses said Poston talking about a missing $10 and was in a rage over having lost it. It is not yet clear what prompted Poston to target Daniel.
Before the stabbing, police say Poston’s boyfriend Jesse Culley had a large piece of wood in his hands during the alleged altercation and that he helped the young woman escape after she stabbed Daniel multiple times.
Poston is currently being held at the Prince George’s County Jail.
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