Son pleads guilty to mom’s murder

BY STACI WILSON

The Susquehanna County man accused of strangling his mother to death in their New Milford apartment pleaded guilty Friday to third degree murder.

Benjamin Ball, 27, entered the murder plea in front of Susquehanna County Senior Judge Kenneth Seamans. He faces up to 40 years in prison in the death of his mother, Lisa Ball.

According to court documents, Mr. Ball began choking his mother as the two argued the morning of Jan. 14 at the Washington St., New Milford Borough, apartment they shared.

At the time of his arrest, Mr. Ball told police his mother then began yelling at him again, and he resumed choking her until she lost consciousness.
He sought a friend’s help to dispose of Ms. Ball’s body. The friend, identified in court papers as Timothy Millard, reported the incident to state police.

Mr. Ball then carried his mother’s body to the upstairs of the residence, where he placed in a large, lidded, plastic box which he secured shut with a padlock.

Susquehanna County Coroner Anthony Conarton said the cause of Ms. Ball’s death was asphyxiation due to strangulation.

Mr. Ball is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 21, 2016. He has been held without bail in the Susquehanna County Correctional Facility since his Jan. 14 arrest.

In 2011, Mr. Ball was one of four people arrested in connection with a series of burglaries at area pharmacies in which Vicodin, Hydrocodone and Oxycodone were stolen. In that same year, Ball was also a passenger in a vehicle where police discovered over 200 tablets of prescription narcotics.