22-year old Travis Fendley has been formally charged with murder.Police say he admitted to strangling his 78-year old grandmother.
The body of Joyce Frazier was found Tuesday in her Fresno home.
It was a photograph taken... in happier times.
78-year old Joyce Frazier poses with her grandson, Travis Fendley.
Now police say the 22-year old has admitted to strangling his grandmother at her East Fresno home on Tuesday...
“She was scared of him.”
Becky Alford is Fendley's aunt.
She believes she was on her nephew’s hit list too.
She says he suffered from schizophrenia, and says her mother let her grandson stay in the house to protect him.
“Nobody in the system wanted to help us. I tried everything. I went everywhere and no one wanted to help us,” Alford said tearfully.
Court documents reveal Frazier had been in and out of jail for years.
In one case, charged with stealing his grandmother's car.
That's when his grandmother retained Fresno attorney Charles Magill.
“When a person acts out that way, it's the mental illness acting out, not the person. And they know the person as the loving supportive grandson son nephew that he Travis was before his psychosis,” said Charles Magill.
Fendley's family says he would not receive his medication in jail, and threatened to kill his grandmother and other relatives each time he got out.
“He's killed our animals to get back at us because we wouldn't do a lot of his wishes,” Alford said.
The county health department says inmates receive medication ...but only after they’re evaluated.
“Our licensed psychiatrist will make a determination based on evaluation of psychosis will be offered as part of the treatment,” said Edward Moreno.
