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A 26-year-old man charged with killing his elderly mother and burying her on their property pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Friday.

Ashley Victor Demers of Crest will go on trial May 9. San Diego Superior Court Judge Herbert Exarhos set the trial date at Demers’ arraignment, after the defense attorney, Bill Boyland, entered the insanity plea.

Exarhos appointed psychiatrists to examine Demers. If Demers is convicted and found sane, he will probably be sentenced to prison. But, if he is convicted and found to be insane at the time of the crime, he could be committed to a state mental hospital.

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The victim, Anna Demers, 67, was believed killed last Nov. 10, by multiple blows to the head. The accused man led sheriff’s deputies to his mother’s burial site about 75 feet from their mobile home at 2009 Old Bend Road on Jan. 2, after a neighbor reported not seeing the woman for weeks.

Demers remains in County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

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