Jiam Hart: Indiana man gets 55-year prison sentence for stabbing mother to death after a fight
ANDERSON, INDIANA: Jiam Hart, the man who killed his mother by stabbing her last year in September, has been sentenced to 55 years in prison.
Hart, 29, pled guilty to a single count of murder for the death of Janet Hart at the Madison County Courthouse in Indiana on Monday.
Police identified Jiam Hart as main suspect
After entering a guilty plea, he was sent straight to a state prison. According to the Herald Bulletin, Janet's death was reported by her daughter.
Jireh informed Anderson Police that although her brother lived in the garage because of past behavioral problems, he was not permitted to be in the house.
Jireh, who was dropping her kids off with her mother so she could run errands on the day Janet was killed, claimed to have witnessed her brother leaving the house that afternoon, according to Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN.
Hart's sister informed authorities that she had spoken with her mother earlier over the phone and found out there had been a fight at the house the previous night.
Jiam allegedly yelled at Janet and spat on her, according to Janet's complaint to her daughter. Jireh became concerned and went to the home after she didn't hear from her mother for nearly the whole next day. That's when her mother was discovered dead.
A petition to commit Jiam was discovered on a table in the home following the murder, according to Anderson Police. WXIN reported that the petition was discovered exactly "next to the bloody spot" where Janet had repeatedly been stabbed.
Within 24 hours of the murder, police were able to track down Jiam as he had been identified as the main suspect. Police said that he behaved strangely when being questioned.
He said he wasn't Janet Hart's son and denied ever having lived at the house.
Jiam Hart joked with cops on being caught
According to WXIN, Hart once joked, “You are a detective. If you saw you saw things and [my sister] said she saw things then what do you have? You solved it! What else do you want me to say?”
When Hart was arrested by the police last year, they claimed to have found his mother's credit card and at least one piece of her jewelry on him.
Law&Crime obtained access to court documents on Tuesday, which attest to Hart's multiple mental competency assessments while prosecutors worked to prosecute him.
After failing one this summer and another this spring, he was finally found competent this October. An attorney representing Hart did not respond to a request for comment right away.
