A New Hampshire man will spend at least 40 years in prison for killing his mom and setting her remains on fire after she asked him to turn down the volume of his PlayStation.
Thomas Humphrey, 47, was given the 40 to life sentence this week after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He also pleaded guilty to felony arson for burning the remains and was sentenced to five to ten years. The sentences will run back-to-back.
On Dec. 4, 2023, Humphrey was playing the PlayStation that his mom Linda Tufts, 70, had given him as a birthday gift, according to Law & Crime. The two got into an argument over the volume when Humphrey got angry and stabbed his mom 22 times.
After the stabbing, Humphrey lit his mother’s remains on fire inside their Goffstown, New Hampshire, home.
Humphrey had been living in his mom’s basement at the time of the attack.
First responders were called to the home around 2:20pm for a small fire. After they put out the blaze, they found Tufts dead in the home from the stab wounds.
Police also found Humphrey inside the home holding the knife, according to the report. He appeared to have self-inflicted stab wounds. Humphrey was taken to the hospital before he was charged with his mom’s murder.
Neighbors told local media that Humphrey had been kicked out of the house and was only allowed to return shortly before the attack. Humphrey’s father was at work when the killing happened.
New Hampshire Superior Court Judge N. William Delker blasted the killer as he sentenced him to decades behind bars.
“This is, as I said, in my more than a decade on the bench, one of the most brutal murders that I’ve presided over,” he said. “The brutality of this crime simply makes it too dangerous not to impose a very lengthy state prison sentence.”
