| For Immediate Release Case # 04WF1401 June 01, 2007 |
Contact: Farrah Emami Spokersperson Office: 714-347-8405 Cell: 714-323-4486 |
SON SENTENCED TO 40 YEARS TO LIFE FOR
SHOOTING AND MURDERING HIS MOTHER
SANTA ANA – A son was sentenced today to 40 years to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of murdering his mother, Ann Marylnn Rizer, in her Westminster home. Michael Charles Rizer, 26, was convicted on December 4, 2006, of one count of murder with an enhancement for the personal discharge of a firearm causing death. Michael Rizer entered a plea of “not guilty by reason of insanity,” but the jury determined during the sanity phase that he was both sane at the time of the crime and understood that his acts were legally and morally wrong.
On May 17, 2004, Michael Rizer hid in the closet of the master bedroom in his parent’s home with a shotgun. When his mother returned home from work, he jumped out from the closet and shot her one time in the face as she attempted to flee into the master bathroom. The defendant’s father found his murdered wife when he returned home from work.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.
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