A Tucson woman who stabbed her son to death in July 2008 was sentenced to a no-parole life sentence Wednesday in Pima County Superior Court.
Della Lisa Vermuele's defense attorney, John Sando, had asked Judge Paul Tang to give his client a chance at parole after 25 years.
The assistant Pima County public defender told the judge that his client grew up abused and neglected, began using heroin at 13 and has serious physical and psychological issues. He also said Vermuele should have been convicted of manslaughter instead of first-degree murder.
Paramedics and Tucson police who were summoned to Vermuele's home in the 3300 block of North Geronimo Avenue in July 2008 found Vermuele and her son, Spencer Carbone, 31, suffering from stab wounds.
Carbone died at University Medical Center, and Vermuele, 50, was arrested upon her release from the hospital three days later.
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During her trial last month, Vermuele told jurors that she and her son were arguing about money when she saw a butcher knife on her son's bedroom entertainment center.
She and her son reached for the knife at the same time, and they both ended up being stabbed in the ensuing struggle, Vermuele said.
During Deputy County Attorney Nicol Green's cross-examination, Vermuele denied telling police that her son came out of a bathroom wielding the knife at her. She also denied saying her son was trying to harm himself. Vermuele further denied telling police that one of her friends could have stabbed her son or that she could have stabbed herself.
The defendant also adamantly denied exclaiming "You (expletive) drove me to it" after her son collapsed, as one of her friends had testified.
On Wednesday, Green asked Tang to impose the no-parole life term because of Vermuele's lengthy criminal history, which dates to 1978. She pointed out that Vermuele has been to prison twice, and each time she had her parole revoked.
Carbone's cousin, April Vermuele, told Tang that she was upset about the way her aunt portrayed her cousin during the trial.
Instead of an out-of-control, drug-abusing alcoholic, Carbone was a passionate man with lofty dreams, "a gentle heart and a kind spirit," April Vermuele said.
He wanted to make something of himself despite being born into a situation wrought with violence and substance abuse, April Vermuele said.
