An Independence man whose mother had died and was found stuck to a recliner has pleaded guilty to elder abuse and forgery.
Prosecutors were seeking manslaughter for 53-year-old James Owens, who will spend one year in jail for the lesser charges.
Owens lived with his 74-year-old mother, who died from a stroke. Emergency crews said she had been left in the recliner so long that her legs were fused to the chair and her body had to be pried from it … her wounds infested with maggots.
Owens told investigators he was his mother’s caretaker, but that it was her wish to die at home.