TACOMA, WA – The Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office charged Sebastian Samuel Levy Aldrete, 49, with murder in the second degree for clubbing his mother to death with a liquor bottle. Aldrete’s mother died in their home after suffering blunt force trauma to her head. She was also strangled.
“In twenty-two years as a prosecutor, this is the only case I can recall when a son was charged with killing his mother,” said Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.
On October 16, 2017, at approximately 5:30 a.m., Aldrete called 911 and reported that he and his mother had been attacked by an unknown intruder. Officers responded to 1 St. Helens Avenue, which is a secured apartment building. They noted no signed of forced entry.
Aldrete directed officers to a bedroom where they found the body of Maria Aldrete-Levy, Aldrete’s mother. Her face and head were covered in blood and she was not breathing. There was blood spatter and smears of what appeared to be blood on the wall next to her body. A broken, jagged bottle neck was located on the floor.
The medical examiner determined that the victim had sustained blunt force injuries to her head and face. He also noted that she was strangled and sustained a fractured larynx.
Officer’s noted that Aldrete was sweating profusely, seemed nervous, and had superficial cuts on his forehead and face. He also had dried blood on the palms of his hands. There was blood on his T-shirt, including areas that were covered by the sweatshirt he was wearing when he spoke with police.
Aldrete reported that he was in bed when he heard the sound of his mother screaming, so he jumped out of bed and ran toward her room. He claimed he had a physical altercation with a figure he saw emerge from the room. He could not describe the figure, but said the person bent his thumb back and thereby escaped his grip.
Aldrete reported that he found his mother bleeding profusely from the center of her neck. He grabbed some towels from the bathroom across the hall, rather than the bathroom adjacent to her bedroom, and applied pressure to her neck. The medical examiner found no injury to the victim’s neck that would have been bleeding.
The defendant’s two sons were asleep in the apartment at the time of the murder.
Bail was set at $2,000,000.
Charges are only allegations and a person is presumed innocent unless he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
For more information, please contact James Lynch at (253) 798-6265, [email protected].