MAYS LANDING, N.J., Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A homeless woman who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and admitted killing a mother and daughter visiting Atlantic City was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
Antoinette Pelzer, 36, must serve at least 68 years before she will be eligible for parole, The (Atlantic City) Press reported. That means she will almost certainly die in prison.
At a sentencing hearing Thursday, Pelzer apologized to the family of Po Lin Wan, 80, and Alice Mei See Leung, 47. She blamed the killings on her mental illness.
"I was real sick back then at the time," she said.
The two women, who enjoyed traveling together, had been living in Scarborough, Ontario, but were originally from Hong Kong, family members said.
Pelzer's mother had ordered her out of her home in Philadelphia about a month before Wan and Leung were killed in May 2012. She ended up in Atlantic City, sleeping in the train station and begging for money.
Pelzer had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic when she was 24 but she had no history of violence, authorities said.
"Her family didn't fail her," Gladys Pelzer said. "The system of mental illness failed her."
