Murder Plot Called Son’s Surprise for Mother on Her Day

Nels Sperling spent Mother’s Day arranging a surprise for his mom--he completed his plans to have her murdered, sheriff’s investigators said Tuesday.

Sperling, 19, was arrested Tuesday at the home he shared with his mother, Louise Sperling, 57, in the 18000 block of Winslow Place in Cerritos after the man he hired to kill her told detectives about the plot, investigators said.

Lt. Darrell Gordon of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide bureau said Sperling “basically admitted to everything” after his arrest, telling detectives that he decided to do away with his mother so he could inherit the house.

Gordon said that some time ago, Sperling contacted a man with whom he had undergone training as a security guard and asked the man if he knew anyone who might be willing to kill for hire.

On Sunday, Gordon said, Sperling “finalized the thing,” suggesting that the man he had contacted do the job himself, killing Louise Sperling at her home in a way “that made the whole thing look like a burglary.”

Gordon said Sperling carefully removed a machine gun, a silencer and some explosives from the home and placed them in a storage locker on Artesia Boulevard so detectives would not find them during any subsequent investigation of the “burglary-homicide.”

According to detectives, the man Sperling hired told sheriff’s deputies of the murder plan, which they said was to have been carried out late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. The detectives declined to identify the man.

Officers said Sperling was carrying a loaded handgun when he was arrested. He was booked at the Lakewood sheriff’s station on counts of solicitation to commit murder and unlawful possession of a machine gun and silencer.