Ex-attorney gets life sentence over mother’s death

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HILO, Hawaii (AP) — A former attorney convicted of killing his mother on the Big Island delivered a bizarre, rambling statement to the court during sentencing, telling the judge he had “attained immortality” and is the Antichrist.

Sean Alan Rutledge, 43, was sentenced this week to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the deadly stabbing of 63-year-old Nadean Rutledge, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.

A Hawaii jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in September.

“The prison term is appropriate given the nature of the offense and, in the court’s view, the defendant is a danger to the community,” Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto said.

Nadean Rutledge’s body was found naked under a sheet on the side of her home in the Kapoho Vacationland subdivision in August 2015.

Sean Rutledge had displayed odd behavior at prior court proceedings, but he was found fit to stand trial.

When asked by the judge if he wanted to speak during the sentencing hearing, Rutledge responded by giving a near incoherent monologue that spanned claims of innocence to government conspiracies.

“When I left, Nadean Rutledge were not seriously injured. There were no stab wounds to the head; there were no stab wounds to the back,” he said. “There were no serious injuries. Nadean Rutledge were alive.”

Rutledge said that because of “disputes with the U.S. federal government” he left California for Hawaii “to leave the country.” He said he contacted foreign governments and had been seeking political asylum. He also said the U.S. government tried to harass him.

“When I attained immortality, that became a circumstance that the U.S. federal government became very concerned with,” Rutledge said.

The former lawyer was disbarred in New York under the name Alan Frank. He also resigned from practicing law in California to prevent disbarment hearings.

In California in 2012, the Orange County Superior Court entered a $37.7 million judgment against United Law Group, which was co-founded by Rutledge, over claims it duped mortgage-relief clients. The class-action suit had about 1,700 claimants.