Margaret and David Sumney.
A Pennsylvania man who beat his mother to death in 2019 before dumping her body in her bathtub and taking pictures of himself with her corpse has been sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison.
On Thursday, David Sumney, 33, of South Fayette, was sentenced two months after he pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for killing his mother, Margaret Sumney, 67,The Daily Beastreports.
As part of a plea deal with Sumney in August, prosecutors dropped more punitive charges of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in exchange for his guilty plea,TribLive reports.
A first-degree murder conviction would have left him facing life in prison without parole,CBS News Pittsburghreports.
He could be released from prison in 17 years, since he has been held behind bars since his arrest on Sept. 4, 2019,The Daily Beastreports.
His mother’s family is outraged at the plea deal he made and the sentence he received,The Daily Beastand CBS Pittsburgh report.
She told the court she wanted him to “receive the death penalty.”
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The family’s ordeal began on Aug. 31, 2019, when they were unable to reach Margaret at her home in South Fayette, just outside of Pittsburgh.
On Sept. 2, 2019, police conducted a welfare check at the request of the family and found Margaret’s battered, bloodied corpse slumped in a bathtub inside her townhouse on Olde Orchard Drive.
Officers found the house in chaos with shattered glass on the floor and blood smeared on the walls and furniture, TribLive reports.
Margaret died from blunt force trauma to her head, neck and torso, the medical examiner ruled.
When questioned, David told police he had nothing to do with his mother’s death, prosecutors said, CBS News Pittsburgh reports.
But when investigators took a look at his phone, they found scores of pictures of his mother’s bloody body that he took starting at 4:50 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2019, prosecutors said.
“In between many of the photos of the victim appear selfies of the defendant in which he is seen with blood smeared on his face, and in one photo giving a thumb’s up pose,” the prosecutor said in August, TribLive reports.
Sumney had 277 gruesome pictures of his mother on his phone and also videotaped himself washing her corpse off in the tub, according to TribLive.
On Thursday in court, David expressed remorse for killing his mother.
His half-sister, Ellen, told the court that means nothing to her and her family considering what he did to their mother.
“You broke her back,” she said,The Daily Beastreports. “You paralyzed our mother. And then you just beat her and beat her. The blood was splattered along the walls.
“But I think the sickest part is the pictures. The 277 pictures. You only take pictures if you want to go back and see what you did.
“David, she gave you everything she had. And when she didn’t have anything else to give, you killed her,” she added. “I had no idea you were this kind of monster. And I’m still upset you were not prosecuted to the fullest. This was first-degree murder.”
David’s attorney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
