Ninety-Eight Year-Old Woman Accused of Strangling Centenarian Roommate
Whether it be in the family home, a college dormitory, or a nursing home or assisted living facility, living with a roommate can often be a contentious situation. Every person has a certain way he or she likes to enjoy being at home, and roommates often fight about issues such as noise, space, organization, and cleanliness. In cases where the roommates are free to explore other living arrangements, such disagreements usually result in the roommates deciding to live elsewhere. In cases where roommates are not free to live somewhere else (brothers who share a room in the family home, e.g.), these disagreements often result in physical and verbal confrontations; rarely, however, do such confrontations turn deadly.
Unfortunately, such a confrontation did turn deadly in Massachusetts recently, with a ninety-eight year-old woman being accused of strangling her one hundred year-old roommate in a Massachusetts as a result of a disagreement about a bedside table. The victim was found dead with a shopping bag tied loosely around her head and an autopsy indicated that she had been strangled. The nursing home was aware that the table had been a source of controversy, with the victim complaining that the table obstructed her path to the restroom. The victim had also been complaining that her ninety-eight year-old roommate was making her life miserable in the weeks leading up to the apparent murder. The nursing home says it presented the victim with the chance to change rooms twice, but that the victim declined. A nursing home spokesman also said the two were like “sisters.” The ninety-eight year-old accused of the murder has been indicted on a second degree murder charge.
Second degree murder is a Class A felony in Tennessee, punishable by up to sixty years in prison. However, it seems unlikely that the case will go to trial. The accused has been sent to a state hospital for testing to determine whether or not she is competent to stand trial. Given her advanced age and the nature of the disagreement that led to the incident, it is doubtful that the accused would be found competent to stand trial in Tennessee. One of the requirements of such competency is that the accused understand the nature of his or her actions and thus be able to understand the reason why he or she is being subjected to punishment. It is unlikely that a lady of such advanced age was thinking reasonably when she allegedly decided to kill her roommate over a disagreement about the placement of a table. It seems much more plausible that her mental capacity had diminished to the point that she did not realize the seriousness of what she was doing or that she felt there was much more at stake than simple decorating philosophy. Either way, the determination of whether or not she is competent to stand trial will be made by the appropriate entities, but it seems doubtful given the surrounding circumstances and the age of the offender that the woman will have to actually stand trial on a second degree murder charge, especially considering that any sentence she received in conjunction in the charge would last far longer than she would likely be able to serve.
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