Damian Hawley gets life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.
A 56-year-old Windsor man has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years for killing his elderly mother.
Damian Hawley pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to second degree murder in the death of 85-year-old Gertrude Hawley.
In June 2014, Damian went to his mother's home on Reedmere where he used a hammer to beat her.
Gertrude was found by her grandson with severe trauma to her skull and she later died in the hospital.
The court heard the motive was finances as Gertrude had removed Damian from her Will just days before the beating but the defence disagrees.
"No one will ever know. The motive was no motive at all," said Damian's lawyer Frank Miller outside of the Superior Court House. "It was a series of events that came together in Hawley's life that pushed him over a limit that stopped him from thinking reasonably about what he was doing."
Damian's daughter Kaitlyn Hawley is glad the case is over, but she would have preferred if he pleaded guilty to first degree murder instead of the lesser offence of second degree.
She says her father deserves to be behind bars for what he did to her grandmother.
"I just hope he will get denied parole, I don't want him out on the streets, he is a danger to society," she said.
Before being sentenced, Damian stood in court and told the judge that he loved his mother but he can't explain why he did what he did.
He also spoke about how hard it was for him to live with the fact that he took his mother's life and Justice Bruce Thomas replied "it should be."