A 25-year-old Las Lo­mas man who stabbed his preg­nant moth­er to death in 2019 be­cause he was an­gry over be­ing ne­glect­ed as a child will have to serve al­most a decade longer in prison be­fore he is re­leased.

Michael Joseph was ini­tial­ly charged with his moth­er’s mur­der but was al­lowed to plead guilty to the less­er of­fence of manslaugh­ter by provo­ca­tion un­der a plea agree­ment re­cent­ly ne­go­ti­at­ed by his at­tor­ney, Michelle Ali, of the Pub­lic De­fend­ers’ De­part­ment (PDD).

In de­cid­ing on the ap­pro­pri­ate sen­tence for Joseph, Jus­tice Sherene Mur­ray-Bai­ley ac­cept­ed the 27-year start­ing point agreed up­on by the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) as part of the plea deal.