SAN DIEGO, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- A Southern California teenager has been sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for killing her mother by battering her with a hammer.
Heather Marie D'Aoust, 16, wept as she read a statement of apology Wednesday in Superior Court in San Diego, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. She was charged as an adult for the killing she committed at the age of 14.
"I didn't mean to hurt you," she told her father, grandparents and older sisters. "I wasn't able to stop myself."
D'Aoust pleaded guilty in December to second-degree murder and to assaulting her father, who survived without serious injury. Rebecca D'Aoust, a teacher and school counselor in San Diego, was killed in May 2008 at the family home in Scripps Ranch.
James D'Aoust told the court he believes Heather, who was adopted, is mentally ill.
"The Heather I visit at Juvenile Hall is not that angry girl that killed Becky but the wonderful girl that we raised," he said.
Judge Michael Wellington acknowledged the teen's mental problems but said they are not a defense to murder.
