Son pleads guilty to stabbing his mother

When the passerby first spotted the figure laying prone on the snow at the Chippawa boat launch along the Welland River, he thought perhaps it was homeless person.

With temperatures sitting at a bitter –12 C, the man approached the person to offer assistance.

As he got closer to the crumpled body, however, he was shocked to discover a 52-yearold woman covered in blood.

The Niagara Falls woman had been stabbed repeatedly inside her car then abandoned in the snow.

In Superior Court of Justice in Welland last Tuesday, the woman’s son pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted murder.

The 29-year-old Niagara Falls man, who is not being named in order to protect the identity of his mother, is scheduled to return to court Feb. 21 for sentencing.

On Jan. 15, 2018, court was told, the mother and son had grabbed some coffee after attending mass at a local church.

“The mother thought her son was acting somewhat strange that day and was somewhat quiet,” assistant Crown attorney Graeme Leach told Judge Stephen Glithero.

They decided to enjoy their coffee and chat in the empty parking lot at Chippawa Boat Ramp Park on Lyons Creek Road.

Without warning, court heard, the son pulled out a knife and began to stab his mother repeatedly.

The knife sliced her from her sternum to her abdomen and left a six-inch gash to her calf. Her left hand was fractured and her right lung collapsed. She had a laceration to her liver and her right eye was punctured.

Court was told the son then pulled his mother from the car and drove off.

The woman was airlifted to a Hamilton trauma hospital in critical condition. She needed more than 200 sutures to close her wounds.

Meanwhile, the son made a stop at a convenience store in Grimsby for gas and to withdraw cash from an ATM.

The store clerks noticed what appeared to be blood on his pants. When he realized they were looking at his mother’s blood, the son told them he had recently “field dressed” a deer.

“At no time did he try to get assistance for his mother,” Leach said.

The defendant surrendered to police the following day.

Defence counsel Michael DelGobbo said his client takes full responsibility for his actions.

“There appears to be no motive,” he said. “(The defendant) and his mother had a very good relationship.”

“It appears that at some point his mother and father had arranged for him to take drug counselling,” the lawyer added. “It appears to have changed his personality.”