ROANOKE, Va. (AP) _ A Vinton man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for killing his mother. Media outlets report that 30-year-old Dean Austin Selbe was sentenced Wednesday in Roanoke County Circuit Court. Selbe pleaded guilty in April to the first-degree murder of 56-year-old Karen J. Selbe. She was hit in the head with a hammer and stabbed 68 times while she slept in January 2014. Police found her decapitated torso on a bed in an apartment she shared with her son. Her limbs were found in boxes. Selbe testified Wednesday that he heard demonic voices that told him to commit the crime. Circuit Judge James Swanson acknowledged that Dean Selbe had lived a difficult life marked by mental illness but said he had a duty to protect the public.
