COBB COUNTY, Ga. — After a second trial, a west Cobb man accused of stabbing his mother to death has been convicted.
On Dec. 11, a jury found Damien Cornell McElrath guilty, but mentally ill, on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault.
It all stems from a July 2012 incident when the then-18-year-old stabbed his mother Dianne more than 50 times inside her Ashley Drive home.
According to police, he told officers he stabbed his mother because he believed she had been poisoning him for years and she told him that morning that she was trying to kill him.
Damian told police he took a knife from the kitchen, went to his mother's room, and, while she was facing away from him, began stabbing her in the neck. She tried to escape, but Damian followed her down the stairs.
After stabbing his mother, Damian cleaned up the crime scene, called 911 and smoked a cigarette while waiting for police to respond. Officials said Damian, who had long suffered from mental illness, had been in and out of impatient care in the months leading up to the murder.
Prosecutors had tried Damian once before in March 2014, and convicted him of murder and aggravated assault after a non-jury trial. He was sentenced to serve life in prison. However, a judge later granted Damian's legal team's motion for a new trial after concluding the 18-year-old unknowingly waived his right to a jury trial.
A jury did not find a different outcome during a second trial, which began Dec. 4, and still convicted Damian of murder.
Sentencing for the trial will be Dec. 14. Damian faces life in prison.
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