LANCASTER, Pa. — A Lancaster County man will serve up to 80 years in prison for strangling his mother to death last year, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Zachary Thomas Gift, 28, pleaded guilty last Friday to third-degree murder, robbery, two counts of strangulation, and theft by unlawful taking, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office.
Judge Craig Stedman sentenced him to 35-to-80 years in state prison. He called Gift's actions a “betrayal” of his mother’s love.
“I don’t think that word is strong enough," Stedman said at the hearing.
The judge added that Gift's mother, Lois Gift, "gave her life" to her son but figuratively and literally.
"You took her life (in return)," Stedman told Gift.
Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Baker, who prosecuted the case, told the court that the case “was about the absolute limits of a mother’s love” that ended in “an absolutely horrendous crime.”
A longtime friend of the victim told Gift in her impact statement that she wanted the plea deal to be accepted to give him a chance to “become the man that your mother wanted you to be.”
Stedman commended Baker and the District Attorney’s Office for their professionalism throughout the case. Gift told the court his actions were “tragic and horrible,” asked for forgiveness from his family and prayed for his son not to do down the path of “drugs and violence” that he chose.
“I chose drugs over everything,” Gift told the court.
Stedman told Gift he will be tested on whether the remorse he expressed in court was sincere.
“(Your mother) is gone,” Stedman said to Gift. “It’s a question of what you’re going to do.”
Friends and family of Lois Gift described her as a dedicated parent and grandparent who sacrificed much to get her son off of his drug addiction by working two jobs, going into debt to get help for him and shielding the rest of their family from his worst actions.
Throughout the struggles Gift’s mother “would keep giving (Gift) one more chance,” said a longtime friend and coworker of Gift’s mother.
Gift’s mother’s final years were filled with “turmoil and chaos” because of her son, the longtime friend said, eventually reaching the point where she feared for her life.
The friend said Gift’s mother believed Gift “couldn’t wait” until she was dead so he could take over her house, also warning to look at Gift should anything horrible happen to her.
“You left us all heartbroken,” Gift’s uncle told Gift in his victim impact statement. Gift’s uncle told Gift he made a “selfish act” that took the life of a woman who never stopped believing in his potential.
Police found Gift’s mother’s body in the basement of her home on the morning of March 20, 2023 while conducting a wellness check after multiple friends, family and coworkers expressed concern over her whereabouts.
An autopsy determined that the 62-year-old woman died of strangulation.
After killing his mother, Gift then stole her purse, phone, wallet, car keys and vehicle, prosecutors said.
Police arrested Gift after he crashed the vehicle into an embankment in Millcreek Township, Lebanon County around 12:30 a.m. the following day – just hours after the murder.
Gift told police he had pushed his mother and drove away because she was trying to kill and eat him.
In a later interview with police he admitted to smothering and strangling his mother in her bed, then covering her body with a bedsheet and fleeing with her personal items and vehicle.
