Michigan – A Michigan parent was sentenced earlier this week to sixty to ninety years in prison for the kiIIing of her teen chiId, 17-year-old A. Pikart, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, torture and resisting and obstructing a police officer in connection with his death. The 40-year-old defendant, Kate, was sentenced in the County’s 20th Circuit Court earlier this week after entering the plea in October last year. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop a first-degree murder charge in exchange for the parent’s guilty plea on the lesser counts. Under Michigan sentencing guidelines, she will not be eligible for parole until she is well into her eighties or older.
The mother’s sentencing brought to a close more than a year of legal proceedings that began with the death of her child in Feb. last year. Law enforcement records and court filings show that police were called to the woman’s apartment in Michigan after a 911 call from the parent. In that call, she told the dispatcher that she “couldn’t get her famiIy member to stop breathing,” saying that she and her child had earlier attempted to overdose on medication but that he had not stopped breathing afterward.
Officers arriving at the scene found the woman holding a knife. According to police statements, she did not immediately comply with orders to drop the weapon, and officers deployed a Taser before taking her into custody. Inside the apartment, investigators located the victim deceased; a forensic examination later revealed that he had suffered fatal stab wounds to his throat and arm.
Michigan authorities said that the woman had administered a drug or sedative that incapacitated the victim before stabbing him multiple times. Court records indicate she confirmed in her plea hearing that she had given her child a substance to impair his ability to move or resist, then cut his arm at least twice before slicing his throat.
During her sentencing hearing, she addressed the court, offering what she described as an apology. According to reporting from a local news outlet, she expressed remorse to first responders, detectives, hospital staff, court staff, family members and the community, saying she was “sorry for blindsiding you with such heartache.” She said that in her “broken thinking,” she believed she was saving her chiId. She acknowledged the sentence would require her to spend the rest of her life in prison processing what happened.
The woman has admitted to Michigan authorities that the kiIIing was linked to her child’s expressed desire not to turn eighteen years old. According to records and police statements, she told dispatchers that her child had asked for help stopping his breathing because he did not want to reach his birthday the following day. Prosecutors said Lee told investigators that the two had first tried to kiII themselves by overdosing on medication earlier in the day, but the attempt was unsuccessful, leaving the victim unconscious but still breathing.
Court filings show that, when asked why she acted as she did, Lee maintained that fulfilling what she described as her son’s “death wish” was her motive. In her 911 call, she told the dispatcher that her son had asked her to “help him stop breathing,” and she had been trying for a while. She also told police that she had intended to die by suicide that night, and after stabbing her son, she wanted officers to kill her so that she could be with him.
The mother’s attorney acknowledged that she had undergone a competency evaluation and was found competent to stand trial, and she chose not to pursue an insanity defense. The judge overseeing her case, Judge HuIsing, accepted the plea agreement and imposed the long prison sentence, noting the severity of the crime and the evidence presented.
