JACKSON, MI – According to information filed in January in Jackson County Probate Court, David Kellen Grow’s mental illness made him a danger to himself and others.

He was said to be psychotic, hallucinating, mumbling and chanting.

“(Grow) has had delusions of a demon getting in his second floor bedroom window and harming him and his family,” Grow’s father, Ronald Grow, wrote in a “petition for hospitalization” signed Jan. 25.

David Grow – called by his middle name, Kellen – spent about 10 days at Allegiance Health before his discharge on Jan. 28, court records show.

Twenty-three days later, the 19-year-old is accused of using a knife to kill his mother, Robin Denise Grow, 49, inside their home at 224 W. Center St. in Concord.

Ronald Grow came home the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 20, to find his wife dead, Prosecutor Jerry Jarzynka said.

The scene was “horrendous,” Jackson County Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Walker told District Judge Daniel Goostrey, but neither the prosecutor’s office nor police released details about the crime scene or Robin Grow’s injuries.

Goostrey arraigned David Grow on Thursday, Feb. 21, on a charge of open murder.

He ordered him to remain in the county jail without bond.

Wearing the black and white uniform that signals an inmate needs extra supervision, Grow said little throughout the proceeding, attended by no one other than reporters and law enforcement and court officials.

Sometimes, he nodded his head instead of answering the judge’s questions.

David Grow has autism spectrum disorder, the collective term for a group of developmental brain disorders, court records show, and has been diagnosed with psychosis, defined as “derangement of the mind.”

On Jan. 18, Jennifer Underwood, a physician assistant, petitioned for David Grow’s hospitalization.

He was “having disorganized speech,” actively hallucinating and chanting, she wrote. He was not sleeping, she reported.

His statements or actions were “substantially supportive” of the expectation he would intentionally or unintentionally seriously physically injure himself or others, the petition states, and Dr. Rami Khoury said Grow was unable to understand his need for treatment. This was because he was “acutely psychotic,” according to the doctor.

Probate Judge Diane Rappleye on Jan. 25 denied the petition. She found there was treatment other than hospitalization available to Grow and ordered him discharged, records show.

His father, however, filed a second petition for hospitalization on the same day and David Grow remained at Allegiance Health.

In addition to the delusions of a demon, he once made a hand motion indicating he was shooting himself in the head, wrote Ronald Grow, who in January became his son's guardian. This was because of Grow's developmental disability and inability to care for himself, court records show.

Dr. Aurif A. Abedi, also on Jan. 25, reported David Grow’s thought process was severely disturbed. He was unable to communicate and lacked “total insight.”

He was confused, incoherent and mumbling, a psychiatrist, Dr. Samy Wassef, then noted.

Before the court had a hearing on Ronald Grow's petition, David Grow was discharged from the hospital, according to an Allegiance Health document signed by a licensed master social worker and contained in the court record. This means a psychiatrist or other doctor deemed him ready to leave.

Another new petition, which could have been filed at any time, never was submitted.

“It’s just sad people have to find out the hard way that someone is not working right,” one neighbor said of the Grow situation.

Such violence was unexpected in what some referred to as family-orientated village.