Teen Who Beat Grandma to Death with Mallet Caught on Video Attacking Neighbor, Admitting Murder: Police

Edwards said that she had been friends with the teen's grandmother, Diane Trest, 70, for nearly 10 years. So when her friend's granddaughter, Jailen Lupton, showed up on her porch, trying to force her way into the house and admitting to murder, she couldn't believe what was happening.

"Just as I step outside the door, she’s coming up my steps and she says, 'I need help, I just killed my grandma, I killed my grandma,' and she shoves me," Edwards told Fox affiliate WALA, who interviewed her on the same porch where the altercation happened.

"And I said no wait you’re not going in my house and I shove her back as hard as I can and she falls down right there at the door," she continued. "I grab my mop that you see there and I started hitting her with my mop. And I said go, get off my porch."

Video captured by her security system revealed Edwards' encounters with Lupton after the alleged murder of Lupton's grandmother. After chasing her off the first time with her mop, Lupton came back again, screaming, "Help me! Help me!" as she used her shoulder to bust through the front door.

"As soon as I get to my door, she bams it with her shoulder and stuff and knocks, busts my door, my doorframe was busted open, everything and knocks me down on the floor," Edwards told WALA.

According to Edwards, the teen was looking to escape. "She said, 'Where's your keys?' I need to get out of here,'" Edwards recalled to NBC affiliate WPMI.

After failing in her second alleged attempt to get Edwards' keys, video shows Lupton rushing out of Edwards' house and running all the way to the street, where she is nearly struck by a truck.

Edwards followed close behind and managed to flag down the truck. "They said, 'What's going on?'" she told WALA. "I said, she broke into my house, she pushed me down, she kicked me. I said, she said she killed her grandma next door. She said she killed Diane."

Edwards told CBS affiliate WKRG that she and Trest had developed a friendship of sorts over the past decade, and that she'd grown increasingly concerned in that time. "We chatted across the fence. She told me about her children, her sons, and her daughters, and her grandchildren. And she said, 'They're troubled.'"

In fact, she said that police were often called to Trest's home. "There's always been issues next door," she told the outlet. She described to WPMI traffic coming and going at all hours of the night, and loose dogs everywhere. The outlet reports Mobile County Animal Control seized 21 dogs at the home.

Edwards said that she'd often see Trest with bruises and cuts on her body over the years, with the neighbor waving them off as dog injuries. "I'd say, 'Diane, that's not from the dogs," Edwards said, adding, "We kept telling her, 'they're gonna kill you one day. They're gonna drug you or kill you.'"

"Diane was a God-fearing, loving woman," Edwards told WALA. Further, she said that Trest was so proud of the moment Lupton graduated high school, just months ago. "Diane was so proud of her because she says she’s gonna be the saving grace for my family," she said.

After 911 was called, deputies arrived on the scene to find Trest unresponsive in her front yard, per a press release from the Mobile County Sheriff's Office. She was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Edwards described the brutal murder, telling WKRG, "The rubber mallet was laying right there, and her face was just obliterated. This is senseless. How can somebody do this to your grandparent that has raised you practically your entire life?"

Officers reported observing a rubber mallet near Trest's body. They also recovered drugs at the scene, with Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch saying they believe this was a likely factor in the crime. Edwards described Lupton's eyes "as big as saucers" to WPMI.

"Typically, meth is what causes the paranoia, which, when she was running, she told neighbors that someone was chasing her when there was no one, you know, anywhere around her," Burch told the news station. "And that's very indicative of meth use."

The arrest report further states that a family member described Lupton as "mentally unstable" and said she "needs help."

Lupton was arrested and charged with Murder and Burglary 2nd. She is being held on $380,000 bond. If she is able to bond out, she would be held on house arrest with an ankle monitor.