Ball sentenced in mother’s murder

BY STACI WILSON

It was a drug-filled rage that led a New Milford man to strangle his mother to death, and then hide her body in a padlocked trunk last year, according to testimony presented in a Thursday morning sentencing hearing in the Susquehanna County Court of Common Pleas.

Benjamin Ball, 27, will serve 16-36 years in state prison for the strangulation death of his mother, Lisa Ball, in January 2015. He pleaded guilty in December to a count of third degree murder. Ball has been held in the Susquehanna County Correctional Facility since his arrest.

Susquehanna County Senior Judge Kenneth Seamans took Ball’s drug use, his cooperation with law enforcement since his arrest, and his willingness to plead guilty in the case into consideration when sentencing the man to a prison-term just short of the maximum 20-40 years.

Judge Seamans said he found the case disturbing. “This was your mother,” he said to Ball. “The only thing worse than killing a parent is killing your own child.”

The judge called the murder a “horrendous act” and said that other considerations and Ball’s drug issues were “mitigating to some degree but not an excuse.”

As a witness for Ball, defense attorney Paul Ackourey called on a psychologist to offer expert testimony.

Kingston psychologist Ned Delaney evaluated Ball during the course of several interviews in September 2015. Delaney said he also reviewed the police affidavit, along with Ball’s criminal history and school records.

On the stand, Delaney said Ball first began using marijuana on a regular basis while he was in high school; but mainly focused on Ball’s drug use from 2012 until the time of the murder.

He said Ball would “go on a run” for 15 to 20 days, using methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and then take Xanax, a prescription drug typically used to treat anxiety disorders, in order to sleep and “come down from a run.”

Ball would also “stash” methamphetamines to use in order to avoid getting “dope sick.” He would recover, and then repeat the pattern, the psychologist told the court.

“It became the focal point of his life,” Delaney said. “Getting product, getting high, and doing it all over again.”

In the week leading up to his mother’s murder, Ball had been using drugs – using about 20 bags of heroin, along with methamphetamine and Xanax. He returned to the home he shared with his mother in New Milford Borough to change his clothes and to get access to his drug stash, according to court testimony.

Delaney told the court that due to the drug use and a “heightened emotional state” – caused by a fight between him and his mother the morning of the murder -Ball’s ability to think clearly about his actions was compromised.

District Attorney Robert Klein disagreed. “How do you reconcile that with him concealing her body?” he asked.

In closing, Ackourey admitted that Ball and his mother had a contentious relationship. “Drug addiction played a central role,” he said, noting his client’s criminal history reflected years of drug problems.

Ackourey added that he felt the pre-sentencing report presented to the court did not accurately show Ball’s level of remorse. “He doesn’t show emotion easily,” the defense attorney explained.

Klein said, “He choked his mother. She came to. He choked her again and wound up stuffing her in a box.”

The district attorney also said that the pre-sentence report was done long after Ball had been using any drugs. Klein said that in the report Ball did not show remorse when he stated that his mother repeatedly “harassed” him and that “what happened was a long time coming.”