An Ohio man has been sentenced for stabbing and killing his mother, as well as injuring his father, after she refused to let him spend the night with them.
Kenneth Mortimer, 41, will spend at least the next 45 years in prison, a Hamilton County judge ruled Friday, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. Earlier in the hearing, Mortimer pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, attempted murder, kidnapping, and felonious assault.
The condemned man was originally charged with aggravated murder in the death of his 75-year-old mother, Barbara Mortimer. The stabbing took place around 4 p.m. on August 9, 2024, at a home on the 3300 block of Palmhill Lane in Green Township.
Kenneth Mortimer had gotten into an argument with his mother “when she told him he could not stay the night in the family home,” according to an arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime. Then, “[t]he argument became physical” when Barbara Mortimer urged her husband to seek psychiatric help “due to [her son’s] erratic behavior,” according to the document.
The defendant then went to the kitchen to get “the biggest knife he could find” before approaching his parents, “who were seated on the couch, and began stabbing them,” according to authorities. The mother managed to flee and escape through the front door, but was eventually “taken to the ground” by her son.
“Barbara Mortimer was dragged back into the house by the defendant, where he stabbed her multiple times,” the affidavit stated, adding that Kenneth Mortimer then drove away from the scene.
Green Township officers arrived at the scene and discovered “a male victim standing and covered in blood and a female victim, also covered in blood but unresponsive on the floor,” according to a press release from the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Police were informed that the perpetrator was the victims’ son, and officers went on the lookout for Kenneth Mortimer. When Cincinnati police found him “a short time later,” his “clothing, as well as the inside of his vehicle, were covered in blood,” according to the press release.
Kenneth Mortimer was subsequently detained. When he was returned to Green Township, where the crime was committed, he “confessed to stabbing both of his parents,” according to the affidavit.
Barbara Mortimer died of stab wounds. Her husband and Kenneth Mortimer’s father were “seriously injured,” but the 75-year-old man survived, according to Law&Crime.
“It is absolutely horrifying to think of the depravity required to brutally attack both of your parents, killing one and nearly killing the other,” former Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers said in a statement. “Barbara and Thomas Mortimer were just trying to get their son the help he obviously needed, and he responded with unimaginable violence.”
“My heart breaks for the rest of the Mortimer family as they deal with this tragedy,” the prosecutors added.
According to the Enquirer, the crime has had a negative impact on the entire family.
“It changed my sense of safety and trust in others,” Barbara Mortimer’s sister, Janet Stansbury, told the judge, describing how the attack scarred the family.
Kenneth Mortimer was held in jail on a $2 million cash bond, according to Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO.
