Charges held for son accused of strangling mom

BY STACI WILSON

Despite a New Milford man’s early claim to police that drug dealers he owed a debt were responsible for his mother’s death, a homicide charge lodged against Benjamin Ball will head to trial in Susquehanna County.

Ball, 26, appeared in New Milford District Court Monday for a preliminary hearing. He is accused of strangling his mother, Lisa Ball, to death on the morning of Jan. 14 at the New Milford Borough apartment where the two lived.

Susquehanna County Coroner Anthony Conarton told the court an autopsy revealed the cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation and the death was ruled a homicide.

Lisa Ball’s body was discovered stashed in an upstairs room of the residence in a large, plastic, hinged-topped trunk that had been padlocked.

Ball’s attorney, Paul Ackourey asked the coroner how he came to the conclusion that Lisa Ball’s death was a homicide.

“Well, she didn’t put herself in the trunk,” Conarton answered.

The coroner outlined injuries to Lisa Ball’s neck area, including the fracturing of her hyoid bone – a horseshoe shaped bone located in the midline of the neck between a person’s chin and thyroid cartilage.

Pennsylvania State Police criminal investigator Mark Keyes said a friend of Benjamin Ball contacted the Gibson barracks after Ball asked him to help dispose of his mother’s body.

When police arrived at the Ball residence, the body was not discovered.

According to testimony from Keyes, Benjamin Ball voluntarily came to the police station, first telling investigators his mother took a walk following an argument the two had that morning.

His story then changed several times, Keyes said, with Ball alleging his mother was kidnapped by the drug dealers; and then that she had been killed by the drug dealers and that he had been a witness to the murder and that she had been placed by the killers in the trunk in the upstairs of the home.

When confronted by another investigator about the additional information the police had received, Keyes said Ball remarked, “Does this mean I’m going to jail tonight?”

Keyes said Ball then changed his story again – this time saying he had fought with his mother and that she had been poking him and picking on him when he woke up. He told police his mother spit on him and he “snapped,” Keyes said in court.

The officer said Ball admitted that after he took his hands from around her neck, his mother continued to pick on him. Keyes said Ball said he put his hands around her neck again, and when he stopped she was no longer breathing.