Son charged: David Cantrell, 42, was jailed on assault and harassment charges after police say he choked and beat up his mother for changing the TV channel
A man who choked his 70-year-old mother until she was unconscious because she changed the TV channel will serve between 11 and 23 months in jail.
David Cantrell, 42, was arrested in January after beating his mother because he was upset about missing ‘Cool Runnings’, the 1993 film about a Jamaican bobseld team, starring Leon and John Candy.
He was handed a minimum sentence that was four months longer than recommended, because the judge said the offender was not remorseful.
According to the Morning Call, Assistant District Attorney Erika Farkas said: ‘The judge was concerned that he wasn’t accepting responsibility or wasn’t remorseful for what happened.’
The website reports that the judge called the crime ‘horrible’.
Judge Emil Giardano said: ‘This is horrible. I want you to know that. I’m listening to this and this is horrible.’
Cantrell pleaded guilty and will spend six years on parole after he is released from prison.
He admitted beating her and choking her, telling his mother ‘I hope you die’ in the ‘horrible’ attack
He will have to stay in a halfway house, and has been told to have no contact with his mother, and undergo treatment.
Attorneys say Cantrell’s mother now lives in a nursing home and suffers from dementia but still wants to have contact with him.
The Moore Township man acknowledges punching his mother in the mouth and body slamming her before choking her on January 22 while telling her, ‘I hope you die.’
He was jailed on assault and harassment charges after the argument, which occured on a Sunday night in January at their home in the 2700 block of Jean Drive in Moore Township.
The attack happened in their home, and his mother fled to neighbours when she regained consciousness
At the time, police said Cantrell punched his mother in the mouth, lifted her up and then body-slammed her to the floor.
When the elderly woman regained consciousness, she ran to a neighbor’s house for help.
Police responded to the mother and son’s residence at 8.30pm after getting a report about a domestic assault.
The victim told an officer she thought her son was going to kill her. The responding cop observed injuries to the woman’s neck.