MINNEAPOLIS — A Maple Grove man was sentenced to just over 22 years in prison in the 2019 murder of his mother, and an assault that left his father badly injured.
Matthew Witt, age 42, learned his fate in Hennepin County District Court on Thursday. He had previously entered guilty pleas to both charges on January 14, 2020.
Maple Grove Police squads were dispatched the night of July 24, 2019 to a home on Eagle Lake Drive owned by Witt's parents. A criminal complaint says when officers arrived Witt answered the door covered in blood, with a motionless body on the ground behind him. Officers recalled him saying “Take me to jail. I did it. I didn’t kill them. They’re alive. I let them live…they’re hurt bad.”
When police asked who Witt was speaking of, he replied, “my parents.”
Witt's mother, 68-year-old Elizabeth Jane Witt, was the person laying on the ground in the entryway. Police found her suffering from severe head trauma and not breathing. First responders began lifesaving measures but she died at the scene.
The defendant's father was found badly beaten in an upstairs bathroom. Prosecutors say he told officers that Matthew Witt struggled with mental health problems, and believed he was using methamphetamine.
