Police: Cameras show man arguing with mother before beating her to death

Jakob Korber is charged with one count of homicide.

By MEGAN TROTTER
TribLive

On Saturday, longtime friends Christin Hamilton and Donna Heltebran caught up by text message.

Hamilton shared some photos of their 1991 graduation from Yough Senior High School, and the pair reminisced. They had been friends for about 40 years, since the first day of seventh grade in the mid-1980s.

Heltebran said it was devastating to learn Hamilton died Sunday morning. The mother of three was beaten on the front porch of her home in Sewickley Township.

Now that weekend catch-up session means a lot.

“She’s the kindest person I’ve ever known,” said Heltebran, of South Huntingdon. “Everybody’s heartbroken. She was such a sweet person. I’m just so thankful that we talked the day before.”

State police on Monday charged Hamilton’s son, Jakob Korber, 29, with a single count of homicide in her death. They recovered surveillance video from the home that Trooper Steve Limani said shows Korber beating his mother for more than an hour while she yells for help.

“She went through hell for over an hour, and it was at the hands of her son,” he said.

Troopers were called to the home on Herminie West Newton Road around 9 a.m. Sunday after a person living there found Hamilton unresponsive on the porch. Police immediately began investigating Korber, who lives there but was not home, after the resident said he recently made death threats toward them, according to court papers.

Surveillance cameras showed Korber walking out of the home around 7:20 a.m. as his mother was starting her day. The video and audio showed Korber was verbally aggressive toward Hamilton, Limani said.

That turned into a violent assault quickly, he said, “while she’s pleading for her life.”

Korber used his hands, feet and multiple objects on the front porch to beat his mother, police said in court papers. At some point, he put on a yellow reflective T-shirt.

“He just goes in the house, changes clothes and leaves,” Limani said.

Investigators believe Korber slept in a field not far away. Around 6 p.m. Sunday, troopers released a photo of him wearing the yellow reflective shirt and asked for the public’s help to find him. He was arrested later not far from the crime scene, Limani said.

Neighbor Shawn Daugherty said he saw Korber walking along Herminie West Newton Road when a trooper told Korber to get on the ground before handcuffing the suspect.

“There was police cars all up and down the road, helicopters all day flying around here and, seemed like, around the cornfield,” Daugherty said.

Troopers have been called to Hamilton’s home in the past, Limani said. A motive for the beating was unclear.

“There’s been some friction at some points in time between the people within that residence,” he said. “I don’t believe we’ve actually made an arrest ever at that location. We’ve been there maybe in the past month or so.”

Police canvassed the area, and no one, including the other resident living there, reported hearing any calls for help Sunday morning. Herminie West Newton Road is in a rural area, and the home is tucked out of sight back a gravel driveway south of Herminie. It is surrounded by rolling hills and crop fields.

An autopsy will determine Hamilton’s cause of death. Limani described the surveillance video as disgusting to watch. There may be additional charges filed, he said.

“At some point in time, you could’ve stopped,” Limani said. “That’s not what happened.”

Troopers said Korber admitted to assaulting his mother during a police interview after his arrest.

“Korber eventually confessed that if his mother, Hamilton, was dead, it was him that caused it,” police said in an affidavit.

He didn’t have an attorney listed in online court records. Bail was denied and Korber was being held at the Westmoreland County jail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 14.

His criminal history includes a couple impaired driving charges and a marijuana possession charge. He was sentenced to probation in three cases, according to online court records.

Korber’s half-sister Kylee Korber was one of four Yough High School students killed in a fiery crash March 21.