Grammy nominee Jubilant Sykes has died after being stabbed in his family home. He was 71.
According to a statement shared by Santa Monica Police Department on Tuesday, December 9, and obtained by Us Weekly, Jubilant was found “with critical injuries consistent with a stabbing” and pronounced “deceased at the scene.”
Authorities also stated that “the suspect” is “the victim’s son, Micah Sykes” who was at the home when police arrived and “taken into custody without incident.” Micah, 31, will be booked for homicide.
The statement also confirmed that detectives “secured the scene, and subsequently obtained a search warrant,” while a forensics team will be processing physical evidence “including the weapon recovered at the scene.”
The incident, which was contained to the single property, remains under investigation. Micah has not publicly addressed the incident.
According to a report by Rolling Stone, published on Tuesday, Micah was the subject of a restraining order obtained by a “Southern Californian woman” in 2017. A petition obtained by the outlet reportedly read, “Micah shows signs of mental instability. His behavior is unpredictable. Micah poses a real threat … and he has been violent with his own family members.”
The outlet included details of the alleged filing which claimed that Micah “approached the woman outside a church and told her he loved her and was convinced she loved him back.”
The alleged filing then claimed that a man “intervened on the woman’s behalf,” which prompted Micah to allegedly ask the man whether he had “a sharp object” in his back pocket.
The filing also allegedly noted that Micah was later “placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold” after an attempted break-in at the man’s father’s home.
The restraining order was reportedly granted in October 2017 following a court hearing.
According to a report by The New York Times, published on Tuesday, Jubilant, an opera singer nominated for a 2010 Grammy for his recording with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, appeared in a production of Porgy and Bess which played at the Metropolitan Opera in 1990. Other performances were staged in iconic venues including New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Washington D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and London’s Barbican Center, per the outlet.
Jubilant, a baritone singer, featured on the soundtrack for the 1990 film Pastime, and served in acting roles within 2014’s Freedom and 2023’s The Descent. He also had a role in the forthcoming production of The Descent Part II which is currently in post-production, per Jubliant’s IMDB page.
Jubilant said in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) in 2022 that he loved all forms of musical performance. “My singing is like breathing – it’s an extension of me. I don’t think of it as extraordinary. It’s my passion,” he told the outlet at the time.
Jubilant was born in Los Angeles and sang as a soprano when he was a child, per a report by The Guardian, published on Tuesday. He then found his feet as a baritone and would “also sing jazz and gospel” for audiences.
