A Tennessee teenager has been charged with murder for allegedly shooting his sleeping mother in the head with her own gun because she took his mobile phone away.

The incident took place in the city of Rocky Top, which is located in the counties of Anderson and Campbell in the eastern part of the southern US state of Tennessee.

The teenager, named as Shawn Willis, and who was 17 at the time of the incident in April 2020, is currently being held at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Tennessee on a USD 1 million bond.

It is alleged that Willis was unhappy about his mother Sandy taking his mobile phone away from him and so he stole her handgun from her nightstand while she slept before relocating to another room to load it.

He then returned to her bedroom and shot her in the head, it has been alleged.

Willis is said to have confessed to the killing while being questioned along with his father by police.

Details of the case have only come to light now after it was taken out of the hands of a juvenile court and given to a criminal court now that the defendant has turned 18 and prosecutors are charging him as an adult.

Willis has been charged with first-degree murder, which in Tennessee is punishable with the death penalty as well as life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.