HARBOR GATEWAY : Man Sentenced for Killing His Mother

A Harbor Gateway man has been sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison for beating his mother with a baseball bat and a claw hammer before strangling her to death with a pair of nylons.

Eric Johnston, 24, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for attacking his 50-year-old mother, Emma Louise Johnston, in a drug-induced rage Jan. 6 when she tried to evict him from their South Harvard Boulevard apartment because of his cocaine addiction.

The day after he beat and choked his mother to death, Johnston took cash, audio equipment, video games, jewelry and his mother’s car and hocked them for more rock cocaine, Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Steinfeld said.

Johnston, who was on probation at the time for a child molestation conviction, told police that the apartment had been burglarized and his mother had been attacked by strangers. But neighbors told police that the mother and son often argued about his drug use and that she was preparing to evict him from the apartment.