Crime & Safety

Son Already Serving Time for Attacking Mom Charged With Murder Upon Her Death

The Fountain Valley pair got into an argument over household chores.

A 49-year-old Fountain Valley man already imprisoned for attacking his mother with a shovel faces arraignment Wednesday on a murder charge stemming from her death three months after he entered into a plea deal.

Robert Lawrence Char pleaded guilty last July to attempted murder, elder and dependant abuse and delaying arrest, with sentencing enhancements for the use of a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury to an elder. In exchange for his guilty plea, Orange County Superior Court Judge Lance Jensen sentenced Char to nine years in prison.

Last week, Char was moved from the state prison in Vacaville to the Orange County Jail so he could be arraigned Wednesday on a murder charge, with a sentence-enhancing allegation for use of a deadly weapon.

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Char attacked his 74-year-old mother after the two, who were living together in Fountain Valley, got into an argument about household chores on June 20, 2009, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.

Char demanded that his mother leave his room, and when she refused, grabbed a shovel and slammed it over her head repeatedly, according to prosecutors.

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Char left the home and told a neighbor to call 911, saying he needed medical assistance, according to authorities.

Fountain Valley police reported they found Char on the sidewalk in the 10400 block of Calle Madero Circle with blood on his clothes and cuts on his arms and hands.

Joyce Char remained hospitalized and unresponsive until she died last December. The cause of death was determined to be the blows to the head from the attack, according to the district attorney's office.

—City News Service


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