Police: Dismemberment had 'Sopranos' inspiration
RIVERSIDE, California (AP) -- Two young men killed their mother and tried to cover their tracks by chopping off her head and hands the way they saw it done on "The Sopranos," authorities said Monday.
Jason Bautista, 20, and his 15-year-old half brother, who was not identified because of his age, were arrested over the weekend for investigation of murder, Sheriff Michael Carona said.
Carona refused to say where Jane M. Bautista, 41, was killed but said a preliminary autopsy showed she was strangled. Her head and hands were found in the apartment she shared with her sons in Riverside, east of Los Angeles.
"I don't know what motive you could possibly give for killing your mother," Carona said.
The family, originally from Illinois, moved to California six years ago and had moved into the Riverside apartment about six months ago.
According to the sheriff, Bautista was killed and dismembered January 14. The sons allegedly tried to dump her body in Oceanside the next day, but were spotted by a security guard and ended up throwing the body in an Orange County ravine. The guard gave police the license number of Jason Bautista's car.
Jason Bautista, a desk clerk at a Holiday Inn in Ontario, was arrested at California State University in San Bernardino on January 24. He allegedly told investigators he and his brother lived with their mom but they hadn't seen her for weeks, but soon confessed.
"Bautista also told investigators he had seen an episode of 'The Sopranos' where he saw the same type of dismemberment that had been done before dumping a body," Carona said.
The brothers did this, he said, because they believed it would "take away any identifying information that law enforcement could use."
Arraignment for the two was scheduled for Tuesday.
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