Inset: Kenneth Mortimer (Green Township Police Department). Background: Police respond to the scene where they say he stabbed his mother and father (Screenshot: WCPO).
An Ohio man has been sentenced for stabbing and killing his mother – and injuring his father – after she said he could not spend the night with them.
Kenneth Mortimer, 41, has been sentenced to at least 45 years in prison, a Hamilton County judge announced on Friday, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. Earlier in the same session, Mortimer entered guilty pleas for involuntary manslaughter, attempted murder, kidnapping, and felonious assault.
Initially, Mortimer faced a charge of aggravated murder in connection with the death of his mother, Barbara Mortimer, aged 75. The stabbing took place around 4 p.m. on August 9, 2024, at a residence on Palmhill Lane, Green Township.
Kenneth Mortimer had engaged in a dispute with his mother after she informed him that he could not spend the night at the family home, as stated in an arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime. The argument escalated when Barbara Mortimer suggested her husband contact psychiatric services due to her son’s erratic conduct, the document states.
The accused proceeded to the kitchen, found “the largest knife available,” and advanced towards his parents, “who were seated on the couch, and began stabbing them,” according to officials. Though the mother managed to escape out the front door, she was eventually “brought down” by her son.
“Barbara Mortimer was forcibly returned to the house by the defendant, where he continued to stab her multiple times,” noted the affidavit, adding that Kenneth Mortimer subsequently fled the scene.
When Green Township officers arrived at the scene, they found “a male victim standing and covered in blood and a female victim, also covered in blood but unresponsive on the floor,” the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
Police were told that the person responsible was the victims’ son – and officers went on the lookout for Kenneth Mortimer. When Cincinnati police officers found him “a short time later,” his “clothing, as well as the inside of his vehicle, were covered in blood,” the press release added.
Kenneth Mortimer was subsequently detained. Once he was brought back to the jurisdiction where the crime was committed in Green Township, he “confessed to stabbing both of his parents,” according to the affidavit.
Barbara Mortimer died from her stab wounds. Her husband and Kenneth Mortimer’s father “suffered serious injuries” but the 75-year-old man survived, Law&Crime previously reported.
“It is absolutely horrifying to think of the depravity required to brutally attack both of your parents, killing one and nearly killing the other,” former Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers said in the press release. “Barbara and Thomas Mortimer were just trying to get their son the help he obviously needed, and he responded with unimaginable violence.”
“My heart breaks for the rest of the Mortimer family having to deal with this tragedy,” the prosecutors added.
The crime has indeed been difficult on the larger family, according to the Enquirer.
“It changed my sense of safety and trust in others,” Janet Stansbury, Barbara Mortimer’s sister, told the judge – saying the attack scarred the family.
Kenneth Mortimer was being held in jail under a $2 million cash bond, Cincinnati-based ABC affiliate WCPO reported.
