Mom allegedly killed over Avril Lavigne tickets

DUPAGE COUNTY, Ill., Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A jury in Illinois is hearing the case of a 39-year-old man accused of killing his mother for refusing to get premium tickets to an Avril Lavigne concert.

Prosecutors allege Robert Lyons of Carol Stream in DuPage County simply went ballistic when Linda Bolek wouldn't call a friend to arrange skybox tickets for him, while defense attorneys say Lyons has bipolar disorder and was provoked into beating and stabbing his 61-year-old mother to death after she held a knife to his face during a heated argument, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

"This defendant was so angry with his mother that he bludgeoned and repeatedly stabbed her in a fit of rage," Assistant State's Attorney Ann Celine O'Hallaren said as the murder trial got under way Wednesday.

"She threatened to stab him in the eye, Rob Lyons reacted," Assistant Public Defender Valerie Pacis countered. "That reaction was not intended, that reaction was not planned."

After killing his 61-year-old mother, Lyons, who is expected to testify in his own defense, poured several household chemicals on her body, then changed clothes and went shopping at several stores, O'Hallaren said. He was arrested hours later hanging out at a Hooters restaurant in Schaumburg, she said.