Mentally ill Kearns man sentenced to prison

Matthew Alex Kirkham, a mentally ill man who admitted killing his mother in 2005, was sentenced to prison Monday following repeated stays at the Utah State Hospital.

Kirkham, 38, pleaded guilty and mentally ill in 2007 to a charge of manslaughter, a second-degree felony. He has been held at the state hospital for treatment of his schizophrenia, which mental health officials said made him view his mother as a nonhuman entity that was emitting voices that would make his head explode.

His attorneys had asked for a community placement once Kirkham's mental condition improved. Kirkham remained at the state hospital, but a judge in 2008 suspended prison time and put Kirkham on probation so he could move into a halfway house once a bed became available — with the condition that he take all prescribed medications.

However, Kirkham still displayed violent tendencies and was convicted in Provo City Justice Court for one count of assault, according to court records. A second assault charge was dismissed.

Third District Judge Randall Skanchy on Monday revoked Kirkham's probation and imposed the original sentence of one to 15 years in prison for killing Joann Kirkham, 72, by beating her in the head with a rock and forcing her to inhale fumes from a plastic bag filled with paint.

A second charge of abusing a dead human, a third-degree felony, was dismissed in 2007.

— Linda Thomson