The mother of Jaylen Prince, the 16-year-old charged in the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Warren Grant in Joppatowne High School, testified Tuesday that her son was in school the day of the shooting to get his computer fixed so he could attend virtual classes.

Prince faces numerous charges, including first-degree murder in connection to the shooting that occurred in a school bathroom during an argument between Grant and Prince over a girl.

His mother, Rykiech Prince, was the second witness the defense called Tuesday after Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey rested the state’s case earlier in the day.

Rykiech Prince testified that she works for Johns Hopkins pediatrics as a certified medical assistant and has four sons ranging in age from 5 to 18.

She said she and her husband, who is a Baltimore City Police officer, are involved in Prince’s life and that she routinely searches the children’s rooms and tracks their location through Life360.

Throughout her testimony, she and her son rarely looked at each other.

On the first day of school for the 2023-2024 school year, Rykiech Prince testified that she told her son not to go to school since she was in the process of helping him enroll in an alternative, virtual education program through Harford County Public Schools called Swan Creek.

She explained that switching to Swan Creek was something that could be done via a phone call that would enroll Prince in the virtual program.

However, she testified that days into the school year, she had not made the call because Prince’s computer was having issues that prevented him from logging into his virtual classes. She said she told Prince to go to the school to get his computer fixed, which is what led to him attending his first day of school on the fourth day of the school year on Sept. 6.

Upon hearing about the shooting and her son’s arrest, Rykiech Prince said she gave consent to the police to search the family’s Edgewood home. When she was with her son in an interrogation room, she said he “immediately started crying and shaking” after she told him Grant died in the hospital.

Asked by prosecutors if she knew Prince had a gun, she said she did not. When asked if she would have been OK with Prince owning a firearm, she said “absolutely not.” Healey asked Prince’s mom why she did not know that her son kept law enforcement-grade handgun ammunition under his mattress since she testified that she searched her children’s rooms.

“I don’t think any mom in this courtroom flipped their child’s mattress, especially if they never gave them a reason to,” Rykiech Prince said, emphasizing that her son did not have a criminal record.

Healey challenged the response by bringing up Prince’s school record that outlined instances where he was suspended for fighting and other altercations. Rykiech Prince explained that if her son had behavior issues, Joppatowne High School would have “put him out.”

During a police search of Prince’s room, investigators took note of a paper target with bullet holes in it from a gun range, hanging on his wall.

Prince’s mother explained that the target on her son’s wall was actually hers and that he hung it on his wall since she “did so good” at hitting the black silhouette. Rykiech Prince noted that after seeing her target, her son wanted to go to the gun range so, in 2023, she took him to celebrate his birthday.

Healey questioned the validity of the target on Prince’s wall belonging to his mother but cellphone footage from both trips to the gun range — the first with Rykiech Prince and her husband, and the second with her and her son — corroborated the mother’s version. .

Prince’s defense attorney, Staci Pipkin, asked his mom about an injury Prince sustained to his right index finger while at school. The mother explained that Prince’s finger was closed in a door while he was in school in 2023 and that the injury caused mobility issues in the finger and nerve damage.

Healey asked if the mother knew that Prince held guns with his left hand to which she said she didn’t know. Healey showed numerous images found on Prince’s phone ranging from him at his job at Walmart, to photos he took inside his home, where he held a handgun in his left hand, or had it placed in the left side of his waist band.

Rykiech Prince grew visibly upset seeing the images of her son with the handgun.

Healey and Pipkin continued to question Rykiech Prince on other topics like her son’s school attendance record that showed over 100 absences last year, and how often he wore glasses.

Judge Kevin Mahoney said after the testimony that he expects the jury to deliberate the case either Wednesday, or Thursday.

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