SEWICKLEY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A man has been charged with homicide in the beating death of his mother in Westmoreland County.
Click here to see photos from the scene.
Troopers responded to a home on Herminie West Newton Road in Sewickley Township around 9:30 a.m. Sunday after a woman found her mother unresponsive and injured on her front porch and called 911. She told police that there was a “significant” amount of blood.
The woman, later identified by the coroner as Christin E. Hamilton, was pronounced dead at the scene.
“It lasted for over an hour...” explained Trooper Steve Limani with Pennsylvania State Police. “...at some point in time you could have stopped, and that’s not what happened.”
Hamilton’s son, Jakob Korber, 29, was charged in her death. He’s accused of brutally beating her on the front porch of their West Newton home. A porch camera captured the entire assault.
Police said you can see Korber ripping a bath towel off his mother and then beating her with his hands, feet and even furniture. At one point, he filled her mouth with animal feces.
“This is just a disgusting, vile act that he committed against his mother that lasted for a long-sustained period of time, where she pleaded for her life and he, at no point in time, showed mercy during the course of that,” Limani said.
After the attack, police say Korber was seen leaving the home and walking into the woods. His sister appears moments later, sees her mother, and calls 911. Court documents say she told police she believed her brother was responsible. She added that Korber has a violent past and has recently threatened everyone who lives in the home.
Police searched for Korber for hours, until he eventually walked back up to the home just before 5 p.m.
Police and neighbors said that Korber was walking along the road here before he surrendered in the yard. They said he got on his knees and put his hands above his head.
“Maybe he was walking to give up, I don’t know. But there was no fighting with the troopers or anything because I saw him stop, put his hands on his head, kneel on his knees, and that’s when they got out of their car and put him in handcuffs,” neighbor John Underwood said.
State police told Channel 11 they had been called to the home a little over a month ago for a domestic situation but did not make any arrests and didn’t know if the call involved Korber. Korber’s motive for the attack is still a mystery.
“He’s entitled to his day in court. But I would hope that jurors or people wouldn’t have to watch something like this,” Trooper Limani said.
Korber is being held at the Westmoreland County Jail without bail.
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