An Ohio woman has been sentenced to 15 years to life for drowning her 93-year-old grandmother in a kitchen sink and bathtub
As seen on bodycam footage, Heidi Michelle Matheny admitted to drowning her 93-year-old grandmother, Alice Matheny. (Screenshot: Eaton Police Division)
Ohio woman Heidi Michelle Matheny, 35, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years to life for drowning her grandmother, Alice J. Matheny, 93.
Defense attorney Gractia S. Hubler noted that her client had been behind bars for 121 days as of Wednesday.
“MS. Matheny has no adult criminal record other than a disorderly conduct conviction (which stems from an incident involving her mother, who also appears to have a mental illness),” the attorney wrote in a sentencing memo. “MS. Since the night of that incident, Matheny has been ready and willing to take responsibility for her actions.”
Matheny pleaded guilty on March 3.
As seen on body camera footage, she admitted to drowning her grandmother.
“I feel like I put the dog down,” she told a responding Eaton police officer in the lobby of the Preble County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 15.
Alice Matheny had done the dishes. Heidi Matheny claimed to have approached from behind and forced her grandmother’s head into the kitchen sink before laying her body on the couch. Then, believing that Alice Matheny might still be alive, Heidi Matheny filled the bathtub and drowned her there for what she thought was 15 minutes.
“I just put her head in the sink and held it there,” she said of body cam footage. “We were fighting but I kept it there until she stopped blowing bubbles and then I put her on the couch with drugs and she kept blowing bubbles so I put her in the bathtub, until she stopped.”
The responding officer asked what was causing this.
“Nothing special,” said the defendant Matheny. “It’s a day like any other.”
However, she said they took Alice Matheny to a doctor on November 14, who said they could place the 93-year-old in a nursing home. That’s what Alice Matheny wanted.
“But we can’t afford that,” said the defendant Matheny, describing financial problems and conflicts within the family. “It’s a… nightmare. And I’m sick of seeing her. she is stressed She has panic attacks every damn day. She shouldn’t have to live like this.”
When asked why she killed her grandmother, Heidi Matheny said Alice Matheny called her every day and asked her to sit with her and listen. “And I do it every day,” she said, but added that she couldn’t do it anymore.
In the memorandum, Hubler pointed out that Matheny went to the sheriff’s office alone and confessed.
“MS. Matheny has a long history of mental illness and instability,” the attorney wrote. “She confessed to law enforcement that under the pressure to care for the victim, whom she described as the perfect grandmother, she just went ‘crazy.’ .Ms Matheny was finding it increasingly difficult to listen to her grandmother complaining about the road caused by the family’s arguments over financial problems and other concerns It seems that this pressure/stress that Ms Matheny felt when she was “listening to these things, combined with her/their mental illness(es) led to the unthinkable. Ms. Matheny has expressed nothing but remorse for her actions since the beginning of this case.”
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https://lawandcrime.com/crime/ohio-woman-receives-sentence-of-15-years-to-life-for-drowning-her-93-year-old-grandmother-in-kitchen-sink-and-bathtub/ An Ohio woman has been sentenced to 15 years to life for drowning her 93-year-old grandmother in a kitchen sink and bathtub
