GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. – A man accused of killing his wife and injuring her mother and a child in Argyle Forest Sunday afternoon was charged with murder, attempted murder and armed burglary on Thursday.
Kenneth Leonard Poythress Jr. was also ordered to have no contact with a woman named Rachel Hood. He must stay 2,500 feet away from the house where the killing happened and was ordered to stay away from her vehicle and place of employment.
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Poythress is scheduled to be in court next on May 24 at 9 a.m.
When deputies responded to the home on Heron Nest Point at 1:45 p.m. Sunday, they found Curtishia Poythress dead, her mother injured and a child with minor injuries, the police said. The child's relationship to the two women has not been released.
Antonio Hood, Curtishia's father, told News4Jax that he and his granddaughter went to the store Sunday and when they returned home, he saw Poythress leaving the house. Inside, they found Curtishia had been killed and Hood's wife had been stabbed.
“We saw him take off in the car, but we didn’t know it was him at the time. I thought it was my daughter. He took my daughter's car,” Hood said. “My daughter died from injuries, but I can't say any more on that.”
Curtisha Poythress was living at her parent' home in Argyle. Kenneth Poythress went to the house on April 23 and got into an argument with his wife. Her mother was stabbed first, then a teenage niece intervened and Kenneth Poythress stabbed her, according to police. Curtisha Poythress' mother and niece ran into the bathreoom to get away from Kenneth Poythress when he fatally stabbed his wife, according to police.
Bryan Patel, who lives next door to the home where the incident happened, said he was shocked and would never have expected to come home to a crime scene.
Hood said Poythress and his daughter had been separated for a year, but Poythress had never been violent toward the family. He said Poythress drove to the Heron Nest Point home in his own vehicle, which he left at the scene when he took off in his wife's car.
Poythress has a previous criminal history in Duval County, including arrests for battery, sexual assault, making threats and soliciting for prostitution.
"I didn't know anything like this had even happened until I pulled up and I saw this going on," Patel said.