LOS ANGELES — Deborah Smith begins her days online, searching for her son's name on the Los Angeles County sheriff's inmate locator, a ritual she shares with many moms she's bonded with over the years.
"This is something that mental health mothers get used to when you don't know where your kid is," she said. "You can call hospitals, but they won't tell you. The only thing you have left is, 'Did he get arrested?' "
His name came up after his Oct. 7 arrest in Santa Monica. He was standing in traffic waving a knife and wearing a Ghostface mask from the movie "Scream."
