Such Good Boys by Tina Dirmann

From the paperback (true crime):

An Abusive Mother

Twenty-year-old college student Jason Bautista endured for years his emotionally disturbed mother's verbal and psychological abuse.

She locked him out of the house, tied him up with electrical cord, and on one occasion, gave him a beating that sent him to the emergency room.

His fifteen-year-old half brother, Matthew Montejo, also was a victim of Jane Bautista's dark mood swings and erratic behaviour, but for some reason, Jason received the brunt of her insanity and abuse until he decided he'd had enough.

A Son's Revenge

On the night of 14 January 2003, in Riverside, California, Jason strangled his mother.

To keep authorities from identifying her body, he chopped off her head and hands, an idea he claimed he got from watching an episode of the hit TV series The Sopranos.

Matthew would later testify in court that he sat in another room in the house with the TV volume turned up while Jason murdered their mother.

He also testified that he drove around with Jason to find a place to dump Jane's torso.

A Crime That Would Bond Two Brothers

The morning following the murder, Matthew went to school, and Jason returned to his classes at Cal State San Bernardino.

When authorities zeroed in on them, Jason lied and said that Jane had run off with a boyfriend she'd met on the Internet.

But when police confronted the boys with overwhelming evidence, Jason confessed all.

Now the nightmare was just beginning for him.

Verdict

On 4 February 2005, jurors pronounced twenty-two-year-old Jason guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to twenty-five years to life.

Less than a week later, on 11 February 2005, Matthew was sentenced to 749 days in jail for accessory to murder after the fact.  His sentence was reduced because he had testified against his older brother.

It is a sad story for all involved and especially for the two boys.

About the author:  In her long-standing career as a reporter, Tina Dirmann has covered some of the nation's biggest news stories, interviewing notorious criminals and profiling A-list celebrities.  She is a graduate of UCLA and worked for The San Bernardino County Sun and Riverside County's The Press Enterprise before joining the staff of The Los Angeles Times.  At The Times, she covered crime, courts, county politics and worked as a general assignment reporter on the state desk.  Before leaving The Times, Dirmann earned a spot among a small team of reporters named as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 2000 Alaska Airlines crash, which killed 88 people.  In recent years, Dirmann switched gears from crime news to entertainment reporting, working as a staff reporter for US Weekly before becoming West Coast Senior Editor for Star magazine.  Such Good Boys (2005) is her first book followed by Vanished At Sea (2008).  She is currently working on a third book.