Wednesday, March 19, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The man who gunned down his mother after she obtained a protective order against him and then evicted him from her house will spend the rest of his life in prison with no hope for parole.
The same jury that last week convicted 43-year-old Tyrone Howard of first-degree murder handed him the toughest possible sentence short of the death penalty, which was not being sought by prosecutors.
Deliberations after Monday's penalty hearing in District Judge Myron Leavitt's courtroom lasted more than six hours over two days.
Defense attorneys had asked that Howard be given the possibility of parole after he had served 40 years, claiming that the man with a below-average IQ would not be a danger to society at age 82 -- if he lived that long.
Howard and his 70-year-old mother had been feuding over money for years and the defendant testified that much of his $500,000 inheritance had been manipulated away by his mother.
After he was evicted from the home at 6709 Larchwood Lane, near Spring Mountain Road and Rainbow Boulevard, he parked a short distance away and sneaked back inside. He grabbed his mother as she walked by and slugged her in the head before shooting her in the mouth.
When she tried to flee, he chased her and fired two bullets into her back and then stood over the helpless woman and fired a fourth bullet into her head.
He was captured two hours later after police found him hiding in a tool shed in a nearby yard. He admitted shooting her but testified he never intended to injure her.
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