Rebekah Hayes, 29, charged with criminal homicide for death of live-in boyfriend, 28-year-old Antwoin Woodards.
By Christopher J. Hughes chughes@golackawanna.com
Go Lackawanna Editor
SCRANTON – Antwoin Woodards lay dead inside the Oak Street residence he shared with his live-in girlfriend, Rebekah Hayes, for almost 16 hours before she told police to check the bedroom of Apartment #5 on Tuesday afternoon.
Police allege that Hayes, 29, of 207 Oak St., Scranton, fatally stabbed Woodards, 28, three times, hitting him once in the chest and causing lacerations to his left lung and aorta, according to autopsy results provided by Lackawanna County Coroner Tim Rowland on Wednesday. His death was ruled a homicide on Tuesday.
Hayes was arraigned on charges of criminal homicide, simple and aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment Wednesday morning.
The crime was discovered by police after Hayes confided in a friend, Fallon Young, who convinced her to contact police through the Community Intervention Center, 537 Wyoming Ave., Scranton.
According to a criminal affidavit:
Hayes and Woodards began verbally arguing Monday evening about a sexual encounter he had with another man. When Woodards admitted to the encounter, a brief physical fight ensued and Hayes left the apartment to smoke a cigarette. Woodards allegedly continued to yell through an open window, and Hayes came back inside, stabbing Woodards three times.
Woodards fell to the ground and began bleeding from his mouth. Hayes attempted to perform CPR, but failed to revive him.
“He was dead, he was dead,” Hayes allegedly told Young’s boyfriend, Eric Miller.
She then picked up her two-month-old baby and left the apartment to look for Young at Miller’s Finch Towers apartment, 424 Wyoming Ave., Scranton, at about 10:30 p.m. Hayes reached Young through the building’s intercom system, which sent a call to Miller’s cell phone. She told Young that “she had done something wrong” and that “she would have to live with it for the rest of her life.”
Hayes told Young outside Finch Towers that she killed Woodards, and the two went back to Young’s Cedar Avenue apartment where she told her about the argument and the fatal attack.
The two stayed at Young’s apartment Monday night, and she convinced Hayes to contact police on Tuesday.
Hayes, wearing a jacket that police believe was stained with blood, spoke with social worker Kim Cadugan at the Community Intervention Center at about 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon and asked her to contact police and sent them to the apartment at 207 Oak St. When Cadugan asked why police were needed at her apartment, she allegedly replied, “They will see when they get there.
“I really (expletive) up and I’m going to jail for the rest of my life,” Hayes continued. “I didn’t mean it.”
When police arrived at the Community Intervention Center, Hayes told them to “check the bedroom.” Woodards’ body was discovered with the fatal stab wound and additional stab wounds to his arm.
Hayes is being held without bail at the Lackawanna County Prison. All charges are pending, and a preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 28 at 11 a.m.
Tuesday’s discovery marks the third homicide in the city of Scranton in the last 10 months. Police discovered the frozen body of Michael Jackson of Yonkers, N.Y., off Saginaw Street in Dec. 2010, and Malik Carter was shot at point-blank range inside Finn McCool’s bar in South Scranton in May 2011.
During a press conference held Tuesday evening along Oak Street that first announced criminal charges sought against Hayes, Scranton Police Chief Dan Duffy said the homicide should not cause greater alarm to the general public.
“This is an isolated incident. It’s not anything the public should be concerned about.”
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