Philip Looby, 49, was charged with the death of his mother, 70-year-old Mary Anne Looby in her home in the 1900 block of West Point Drive in Lower Saucon Township. Here he leaves his arrraignment.
Man who authorities said beat 70-year-old mother to death in Lower Saucon pleads guilty to 3rd degree murder, will serve up to 40 years
by Sarah M. Wojcik, The Morning CallThe 51-year-old Lower Saucon Township man who police found with blood-stained hands a day after his mother’s slaying admitted Monday that there was enough evidence by prosecutors to convict him of homicide and will spend 20 to 40 years in prison.
Philip Looby entered a no-contest plea Monday morning to third-degree murder in Northampton County Court. A no-contest plea means a defendant does not admit guilt but concedes that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to secure a conviction. It carries the same weight at sentencing as a guilty plea.
Authorities say Looby beat his 70-year-old mother, Mary Anne Looby, in the head and abdomen on Feb. 3, 2019, following an argument when, he said, she came at him with a box cutter. The slaying rocked the peaceful neighborhood near the Saucon Valley Country Club.
According to testimony at a preliminary hearing in 2019, Looby called his friend and former brother-in-law Paul Mclaine the day after the slaying and said he had “something very big" to tell him.
Mclaine testified that this was when Looby admitted to killing his mother, claiming she attacked him with a knife during the fight. Authorities say Mary Anne Looby’s heavily bruised arms and hands pointed to defensive wounds she suffered in the attack.
Looby told Mclaine that he was distressed and planned to hang himself in the basement. Mclaine said there was nothing he could do for Looby, hung up the phone and called 911 to report the attack.
Township police tried the Looby’s doorbell several times before Philip Looby finally showed up. Police say his hands appeared to be stained purple with dried blood. He told an officer that he “wasn’t going to like what [he] found inside.”
The victim was found in the home’s family room, her clothing soaked in blood and spatters of it on the walls, indicating police said, that she remained where she’d been killed. Several broken and bloodied candlesticks were nearby that authorities say may have been used in the attack, as well as a bloody box-cutter knife that was found in an upstairs bedroom.
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