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After he was arrested on suspicion of shooting two adults and an infant inside his Salt Lake City home, Alexander Hung Tran allegedly told police that he was the one who gunned down the three.
But the 32-year-old man told detectives that the Sept. 18 slayings — where 28-year-old Dakota Smith, Heike Poike, 50, and her 2-month-old granddaughter, Lyrik Poike were killed — were his mother's fault, according to a probable cause statement filed Thursday in 3rd District Court.
Tran, who was charged with three counts of first-degree felony aggravated murder, allegedly asked an officer after he was arrested, "If I think this is my mom's fault and that she should be here instead, is there anything I can do?"
"Tran then stated, 'She made me do it. I'm not saying that I didn't do it,' " a Salt Lake City detective wrote in a probable cause statement.
When officers contacted Tran's mother, she told them she had bought the house for her son, and when she found out two adults and two children were staying in the upstairs-portion of the house, she told her son that they had to go, according to the charges.
The mother said Tran told her the people would not leave.
"[She] instructed Tran to tell the people to go and stated she would start the eviction process," the detective wrote. "On September 18, 2015, at approximately 12 p.m., Tran called [his mother] and told her the people upstairs were gone."
Officers started looking for the family after being alerted by Escalante Elementary about 2 p.m. on Sept. 18, that an 8-year-old boy had not been picked up by his grandmother.
When police went to the boy's house, an officer saw a body under a tarp through the living room window, according to charges. Officers entered through an open back door and located Tran in the basement. He allegedly told officers, "I'm putting down the gun," and was arrested.
Along with the .22-caliber handgun, police found several spent casings upstairs in the living room, according to charges.
Each of the three aggravated murder charges carry the possibility of the death penalty — though prosecutors do not have to declare their intent to seek his execution until after he has a preliminary hearing in the case.
An initial court appearance has been set for Tuesday.
Tran is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail in lieu of $3 million cash-only bail.
He has no criminal history, according to Utah court records, except for unresolved misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and an insurance violation.
In June, however, officers were called to his home after his step-father said his son had been acting strangely for several days.
According to a Salt Lake City police report, the step-father told police that Tran had taken apart a pair of scissors on June 7, held the pieces in his hands and started screaming that he was Edward Scissorhands.
Tran also brandished several kitchen knives "in an alarming manner," according to the police report. When police spoke with Tran, they noted that he seemed "edgy and unpredictable," and he was transported to a local hospital for observation.
— Tribune reporter Michael McFall contributed to this story.
Twitter: @jm_miller