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Man sentenced to 50 years for killing mother

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Jeffery Newberg

ELKHORN — Jeffrey Newberg said he still doesn't know why he stabbed his mother to death.

"I don't know what happened that day exactly," he said in court Wednesday. "I wanted to die, and somehow the wrong person—it just happened."

Regardless of his intentions, Walworth County Judge James Carlson said Newberg must take responsibility for his actions—stabbing his mother multiple times, dragging her body to the garage and trying to cover his tracks.

"Your acts in these respects are deserving of the maximum penalties," he said.

Carlson on Wednesday sentenced Newberg, 45, of Linn Township to the maximum—50 years in prison and 15 years extended supervision in the May 23 death of his 70-year-old mother, Alice Newberg.

As part of a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree reckless homicide and hiding a corpse. The original charge of first-degree intentional homicide, to which Newberg had pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, was dismissed.

Those involved in the case said the plea agreement was struck, in part, because the family didn't want a trial.

Three members of the Newberg family spoke in court Wednesday. They described Alice as a "survivor" whose life was cut by her youngest son.

Howard Newberg said the last three years of his wife's life were "not easy." She suffered from ill-fitting dentures, a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery and, most recently, breast cancer, a mastectomy and radiation treatments, he said.

"Well, on Friday morning, you killed her," Howard said, his voice shaky and tears rolling down his cheeks. "You didn't just kill your mother, you butchered her. She'll never know if she was a survivor or not."

Susan Eland said her sister survived earlier challenges because it wasn't her time to go.

"God did not think it was her time to die," she said, sobbing. "Yet that morning, you woke up and decided you were God and it was her time to die, and you stabbed her and stabbed her and stabbed her to death.

"I hope you rot in hell."

Michael Newberg said no matter what his brother has said or will say, nothing can bring his mother back.

"I cannot forgive you," he said, looking straight at his brother. "This is the last day I will call you my brother. … Now all I can say is I hope you can find peace with God because you're not gonna find it with me."

District Attorney Phil Koss said the case should be considered a first-degree intentional homicide even though Jeffrey Newberg pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

"I don't remember seeing a knife wound go through and through. It came out the front as he was stabbing her in the back," he said. "I don't know how much more aggravated of this kind of homicide you could have."

Koss said there was "no dignity" in Alice Newberg's death, and there is "no one responsible for that other than him." He asked the judge to give Newberg the maximum sentence.

"It is the right thing to do in this particular case," he said.

Jeffrey Krebs, deputy first assistant state public defender, acknowledged that Newberg suffered from alcoholism. But he said he must be punished appropriately for his actions,

"This is the most grave case that a person can face punishment for," he said. "Another human being's life has been lost."

Krebs asked the judge to take everything into account and "fashion a sentence you believe is reasonable and fair."

Before announcing his decision, Carlson called the stabbing death of Alice Newberg "a horrific crime" that requires the maximum sentence.

"The court can't move past the terrible seriousness of this offense," he said.