A man pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree murder for strangling his mother in their home in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood while she was on the phone seeking mental health care for him in 2020, prosecutors said.
A Suffolk Superior Court judge sentenced Zackery Grandy, 25, to life in prison with the possibility of being released on parole after 20 years, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
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Grandy's mother, 51-year-old Gisel Thomas, was talking to a Boston Emergency Services Team clinician on the phone on Feb. 26, 2020, working to get Grandy help. The clinician heard what sounded like Thomas being attacked by Grandy and called police, but officers who arrived at the home didn't get a response, prosecutors said.
Thomas' brother found her body the next day, prosecutors said.
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At the time, Boston police said they found the woman dead at the home on Columbia Road about 2:20 p.m.
When Grandy was first arraigned in the killing, his defense attorney said he comes from a large family and has struggled with mental illness over the years.
"He has no touch with reality. You can't hold a conversation with him," Halpern said outside of court. "My understanding, just from talking with the family, is that he's been hospitalized. There's just been a revolving door of hospitalizations."
