A Hawai?i man who fatally stabbed his mother when he was 16 has received a reduced prison term under young adult sentencing guidelines, reports said.
A judge sentenced Kaanoi Kipapa Tuesday to eight years in prison for manslaughter in the July 2014 death of Jolyn Kipapa, news outlets reported.
Kipapa used kitchen knives to inflict multiple stab wounds to Jolyn Kipapa's head and body while she was confined to her bed with a leg injury in their home in the town of Waimanalo, 18 miles (29 kilometers) east of Honolulu on Oahu, authorities said.
The normal prison sentence for manslaughter is 20 years. Hawai?i sentencing laws allow judges to impose lower penalties for defendants who were age 21 or younger when they committed their crimes, officials said.
The judge also granted Kipapa credit for five years of time already served.
Kipapa was beaten daily from the time he was a young child, said defense attorney Crystal Glendon.
"She ordered this violence to happen. And if it wasn't her doing it, she ordered her (biological) sons or her many foster children to do it to each other," Glendon said.
At his sentencing, Kipapa said, "I was so broken, so damaged that I didn't know what else to do. I will forever be sorry for what I done. She didn't deserve to die."
The abuse claims are untrue, said family members who appeared in court.
"I know there's nothing that that lady did that would deserve death like that," Kurlyn Kipapa said to her adopted brother.
