Former NFL player De’von Hall had been on trial for the murder of his own mother, who was found battered at a home in L.A.’s Windsor Hills area in 2017. She would be taken to the hospital, but eventually succumb to her injuries and past away four days later.
Hall was apprehended by police and arrested for allegedly attacking and killing her.
“Alecia Benson was a wonderful mother who tragically died,” a public defender for Hall said in a statement, per the L.A. Times. “Mr. Hall will now go to a state hospital to get the type of mental health treatment that Ms. Benson always wanted for her son.”
Judge Lauren Weis Bernstein found Hall not guilty last week by reason of insanity after considering mental health observations from doctors commissioned by both the defense and prosecution, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Hall had a brief stint in the National Football League as a defensive back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Indianapolis Colts. After football, he reportedly dealt with mental health issues and struggled with homelessness, until his mom tried to help by taking him in. His mother would soon step in to help him. He would live with her for two months before her death.
The L.A. Times also reported on the 911 call that was received at the time of the incident.
“He hit her. He stomped her out,” the witness told a dispatcher when reporting the incident. “They got in a tussling match and next thing you know she was on the ground and he was stomping her out.”
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Benson’s family would speak out soon after her death.
“It was like a switch that had gone off,” one cousin told the outlet. “I didn’t recognize [him] anymore.”
Tony Benson, Hall’s uncle, pointing to football as a potential influence on Hall’s behavior: “He turned into something that became vicious and that was the sport he was in. The move vicious, the more accolades you get.”
