Pennsylvania teen tried to kill mom for taking iPhone, say police

MAHANOY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- An apparent fight over an iPhone landed a mother in the hospital and her son in jail.

The mother told Philadelphia police that her 15-year-old son first bit her on the back. She says her son then took the rope from her robe and placed it around her neck and started suffocating her. The mother says he then placed his hands around her windpipe and kept repeating, "I'm going to kill you."

"From what we gathered, she wanted to talk to him about his iPhone and look at it," Mahanoy Township Police Chief Brandon Alexander told WNEP-TV. "That's how it all started."

Joseph Grutza is being charged as an adult with attempted homicide. He's still in the Schuylkill County Jail, unable to post the $150,000 bail.