A Florida man, who claimed he was “insane” when he bludgeoned his mother to death, was sentenced to decades in prison after pleading guilty.
Michael Hall, 24, was scheduled to stand trial on May 9 for the murder of his mother, 53-year-old Sherri Hall, on March 16, 2021, but he pleaded guilty before the jury selection began. According to The Palm Beach Post, Michael Hall did not go down quietly, claiming several times during court appearances, “I was insane!”
Rather than go to trial on an insanity defense, Michael Hall pleaded guilty to second-degree murder four years after beating his mother to death over a paperwork dispute.
According to the arrest report, police responded to reports of a deceased woman in a Palm Springs apartment on the afternoon of March 16, 2021. They discovered Sherri Hall’s body, which had “multiple blunt injuries to her head, face, and other parts of her body” and was covered in blood.
Police interviewed neighbors at the apartment complex, who stated that they saw Michael Hall around the property that morning, “walking and pacing back and forth.” One neighbor reported to police that they saw Michael Hall “bleeding from his hands.” Another neighbor told police she was so concerned about his “suspicious” behavior that she went back inside her house to wake up her husband.
According to the arrest report, Palm Springs police officers saw Michael Hall at a convenience store the morning of the murder; a store clerk had called the officers to check on Michael Hall’s welfare. When the police asked for his name, he gave a fictitious one — “Jake Jones” — and refused medical attention when the officers inquired about his visible injuries.
Michael Hall was eventually transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation, where it was discovered that he had several additional injuries “consistent with a violent physical altercation.”
The medical examiner determined that Sherri Hall died from blunt trauma to the head and neck compression. The medical examiner found “severe” trauma to the left side of her face, as well as her right ear being “swollen and partially detached.” Her left arm was broken, and the rest of her body showed “obvious signs of great trauma”.
According to the Palm Beach Post, Michael Hall’s public defenders claimed that their client “freaked out” after discussing paperwork with his mother, who allegedly “screamed that he needed to sign title paperwork” and ordered him to leave the home they shared. The defense claimed that Michael Hall “lost control and snapped” at that point.
Michael Hall claimed his mother physically assaulted him before he turned against her. His attorneys contend “that he did not have a fully formed conscious purpose to kill” as well as that “impulsive overreaction to an attack or injury is insufficient to support first- or second-degree murder.”
The public defenders also claimed that Michael Hall had an acute psychotic break, and doctors deemed him unfit to stand trial in 2023. It was eventually overturned.
According to the arrest report, Michael Hall gave police a “full confession” about how he murdered his mother.
Michael Hall was sentenced to 35 years in prison, with credit for the four years he has spent in custody since the killing.
