A 40-year-old Rosemount man has been sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for fatally stabbing his mother last summer in her St. Cloud home, an attack he blamed on his habitual drinking.
Chad M. Pulju was sentenced Friday in Stearns County District Court for second-degree murder in the death of Geraldine D. Bennett, 68, on Aug. 23 at her home on the 2700 block of Atwood Drive. Pulju pleaded guilty in March.
Pulju told authorities that he was experiencing an alcoholic blackout at the time and doesn't remember the attack.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police were sent to the scene about 12:30 a.m. after neighbors heard a woman scream and a man yelling. When they arrived, they found Bennett covered in blood, with wounds to the face, neck and arms.
Authorities found a folding knife under Pulju's left leg, covered in blood.
Bennett was taken to St. Cloud Hospital, where she died.
Prosecutors asked Judge John Scherer to sentence Pulju to 25½ years in prison, at the higher end of sentencing guidelines. Scherer rejected the defense's request for far below the low end of the range and settled on the minimum that the guidelines allow: 21 years and eight months.
