Man Who Strangled Mom With Bungee Cord for "Sleeping Around" Learns Fate

An Illinois man has learned his fate after a jury convicted him of strangling his mother to death with a bungee cord.

Neil Howard, 46, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for strangling his mother Norma Caraker, 60, after she returned home from a date, according to a news release from the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Assistant State’s Attorney Luke Yager spoke about Howard’s alleged motive for committing the crime during his closing statement at trial, saying: “This defendant had had enough of his mother. He’d had enough of her sleeping around. He’d had enough of her not giving him money.”

His mother’s dating was making Howard “angrier and angrier and angrier, until he got drunk enough that he couldn’t take it anymore,” Yager told jurors.

That is when Howard “wrapped that cord around her neck and he pulled, until she stopped breathing,” Yager said.

At the time of his mother’s murder, Howard lived in the basement of her home in Troy, a city located close to the state’s Missouri border and approximately 25 miles northeast of St. Louis.

Police responded to the home at 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 13, 2023 after Howard called 911 and said that he was nervous because his mother was unresponsive, according to the release from the MCSA.

The release said that officers arrived on the scene to find Caraker’s lifeless body in her bed with a bungee cord fastened around her neck.

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An investigation into Caraker’s death determined that she was likely murdered in her bedroom shortly after returning from a date, said a news release from the Troy Police Department.

Howard was convicted of murder following a trial that lasted two weeks earlier this year, with jurors deliberating for three hours before returning with their verdict.

Yager asked the judge to send Howard to prison for 45 years at his sentencing hearing, saying that the convicted murderer had previously been arrested for incidents involving other family members and at least one order of protection, a copy of which was obtained by PEOPLE.

“It is clear that the defendant is a violent individual, and he’s especially violent toward women,” Yager said in court.

In the end, Circuit Judge Amy Maher sentenced Howard to 30 years in prison. She also said in her order that Howard cannot be released until he serves that sentence in full, eliminating any possibility of early release.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.