“Ugly Betty’s” Michael Brea On Beheading Mom: “I Killed The Demon In Her!”

Family and friends of the former Ugly Betty actor arrested and charged with decapitating his own mother just a few days before Thanksgiving believe “financial woes” may have driven the bit actor to commit the ghastly crime.

Michael Brea, a 31-year-old aspiring star who had enjoyed small roles in Ugly Betty and Step Up 3D, was taken into custody early Monday, only a few hours after his mother Yannick Brea, 55, was found hacked to death in her Brooklyn home. New York City Police allege the actor held his mother, Yannick, hostage in her apartment and murdered her with a samurai sword. Prior to the killing, Brea allegedly chased his mother around the house while shouting religious rhetoric, neighbors say.

Sylvan Benoit was a friend of Yannick Brea. He believes that the struggling actor’s money troubles led to his mother’s death.

“Michael couldn’t pay his bills,” Mr Benoit told The New York Post on Wednesday. “I think [the murder] happened because of stress over money.”

Despite landing some noteworthy roles, Michael’ acting career had failed to take off and he’d ventured into other opportunities in a last ditch effort to make money. In 2008, Brea purchased a Subway Sandwich franchise near his home in Brooklyn. Disaster struck when the parent company took the franchise away last year, leaving Michael over $20,000 in debt.

In an interview with The New York Daily News Friday, the unemployed actor said he killed his mom because she had been possessed by an evil spirit and called the slaying “the work of God.” Michael, who is currently being held in the prison ward at New York’s Bellevue Hospital, claims he received signs telling him to “kill the demon” inside Yannick.

After returning to his Prospect Heights apartment in Brooklyn on Tuesday, Brea hugged his mother for the last time. “I knew I would never see her again,” he explained.“I didn’t kill her. I killed the demon inside her. It was the work of God,” Brea told the Daily News. “I was sleeping in my bedroom. God came above my bed and reached his arm to me. I said, ‘God, is my time on earth over?’ I heard a voice say, ‘Yes Michael, today is your last day.’”

Brea continued: “I began hearing voices and feeling powerful. They were asking about the difference between mom and mother. It was a sign.”

Brea claims he received another sign to kill his mother when the woman asked for help fixing a meal.

“I looked at these chickens lying dead in the pot and a voice told me it was a sacrifice. It was black magic.”

When Yannick, 55, knocked on his door, Brea said he was prepared to kill her with a three-foot dagger and samurai sword.

“She had the voice of the demon. I opened the door with the dagger at my side and the sword. I asked, ‘Do you believe in God?’ She said, ‘No, Michael no,’ and began screaming,” Michael went on. “I didn’t want to kill her right away. I wanted to give her time to get right with God.”

He describes days of hearing voices, fearing that he was cursed and feeling “powerful” like the character Neo from The Matrix film franchise. He also goes into detail about the brutal attack.

“I was slashing my mom and I heard the police knocking on the door yelling, ‘Michael, open up, Michael, open up,’ but I knew they wouldn’t open the door and stop me because the spirits were protecting me.”

Brea says he doesn’t regret killing his mother: “I was praising God. To you it might sound silly, but in my culture demons are very real.”

By the time police arrived Yannick, 55, was dead. The gruesome ambush left blood stains on the bedding and furniture in three of the four bedrooms, and on the inside of the front door.