NOVARA, Italy, June 30, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A 68-year-old man from the town of Novara who suffocated his 91-year-old mother to death has been sentenced to 14 years in prison by a local judge.
Angelo Massobra says he killed his mother, Natalia Rognone, because he was “tired of seeing her lying in bed, mentally ill and suffering terribly” in the words of a local newspaper, OkNovara. He claimed that she had asked to be killed.
Massobra’s attorney sought to characterize his act as “homicide by consent.” However, the judge did not accept Massobra’s claim and refused to alter the charge from “voluntary homicide aggravated by family ties and the disabled condition of the victim,” for which Massobra was convicted yesterday. The judge gave a sentence only two years less than that requested by the prosecuting attorney.