Man who killed his mother receives life

Bill Gang

Friday, June 12, 1998 | 11:22 a.m.

A 35-year-old mental patient who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the beating and stabbing death of his mother was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.

Frederick Finger told District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski, "I'm throwing myself on the mercy of the court," although in reality there was no mercy to be granted.

There were only two options for the judge -- sentences of 25 years or life in prison -- and in both cases eligibility for parole would not occur until 10 years had been served.

Under the life sentence, Finger will be on parole for the rest of his life even if he is eventually freed.

Finger had pleaded guilty but mentally ill for the April 1996 slaying, which does not qualify as an insanity defense. It only means Finger will have access to mental treatment within the prison system.

Police were called by neighbors of Finger and his mother about 4:30 a.m. on April 10, 1996, after hearing screaming coming from the house at 708 Dyke Lane off Bonanza Road and Rancho Drive.

Patrol officers found Finger with blood on his hands and clothes a couple of houses away from the house where he lived with his mother and a boarder.

Officers found a bloody knife in front of a different house two doors away.

Franciska Brassaw, who moved here from Germany two years ago and often argued with her son, was dead on the floor in a back room.

The house was under renovation, and a makeshift bedroom was set up for the woman in the back yard behind a chicken-wire fence.

"I'd hear stuff being thrown, windows being broken," said a neighbor, Charles Kerr. "Her son threw tantrums."

Police determined that Finger was on medication for an unspecified mental disorder.

Kerr also said Brassaw "talked about Germany all the time and how she missed it and wanted to move back."