A man will spend 20 to 40 years in prison for beating his mother to death after she evicted him from her home. A Pennsylvania judge sentenced Christopher M. Depka, 41, on Monday as part of a Sept. 1 plea deal for third-degree murder, according to The News-Item.
Police in Coal Township, Pennsylvania, have said that they responded to a welfare check to look for Sarah E. Jones, 61, at her home in the 1200 block of West Holly Street on Nov. 21, 2021.
A neighbor had gotten worried. She said that she dropped off onions to Jones the day before, a Saturday, but that Jones suddenly stopped picking up the phone, even though they routinely communicated by phone on Saturday.
Christopher M. Depka murdered his mother, Sarah E. Jones, authorities said. (Screenshot: WNEP)
Cops stepped inside the home, finding Depka in the bathroom, a copy of a warrant obtained by “Penn Live” reportedly states. He was ripping up the tiled floor and told the officers he was planning on replacing it.
But officers kept searching and found Jones in her bedroom, wrapped in several blankets at the foot of the bed. The warrant reportedly said there was blood spatter on the floor, walls, and ceiling of the room.
Investigators also found a box underneath a desk in the bedroom that reportedly contained an aluminum baseball bat. Blood and hair covered the weapon.
Authorities determined that Depka murdered Jones some time between 9:56 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021, and 11:26 a.m. of the following day.
They said he also used her ATM card to withdraw $200.
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Depka reportedly told investigators that his mother evicted him from her home, but he claimed that she recently decided to let him move back in. He also reportedly admitted that he used methamphetamines regularly, was aware his mother was dead, and that he knew her death would allow him to inherit her house.
“We never told him she was dead,” Coal Township Officer David Sage testified, according to The Daily Item in a Sept. 29, 2022, story. Up to this point, officers had kept Depka in the dark about finding the body.
Public defender John Broda reportedly argued at the time to strike Depka’s statements from being used against him because the defendant had been using drugs and was found in the bathroom in the dark.
Court records obtained by Law&Crime show that Jones sued her son in September and won a judgment against him for $150 and change in a landlord/tenant case. The date of his eviction is unclear. Jones originally sought $2,000, the documents indicate.
Initial drug possession charges — Depka was found with marijuana and methamphetamine — were reportedly folded into the homicide case. Prosecutors dropped charges including aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and access device fraud as part of the plea deal.
He received a time-served credit of 725 days and must pay $1,400 in restitution to his brother.
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