Lower Makefield Man Sentenced For Mother's Stabbing Death

A schizophrenic Lower Makefield man who authorities say stabbed his mother more than 70 times, killing her in 2016, will serve 10 to 40 years in state prison.

Zachary Cope, 32, in January pleaded guilty but mentally ill to third-degree murder in the stabbing death of his mother Rebecca Cope, 52. He was sentenced Monday by Judge Raymond F. McHugh, who accepted the sentence recommended to him by the District Attorney's office as a result of a negotiated plea agreement.

“It appears to be a very appropriate sentence,” McHugh said during the brief hearing, saying it falls within the standard range of punishment recommended for Cope’s crime by state sentencing guidelines.

At the time of his plea, Cope admitted to committing the December 2016 murder of his mother in the Lower Makefield home they shared. After the killing, Cope told investigators and doctors that he had slain an assassin posing as his mother who had been hired to kill him.

Cope admitted striking his mother with a cutting board and a frying pan before stabbing her and cutting her throat with a knife in their kitchen on Lower Hilltop Road. He told police he had attacked an “impostor” after she ordered him to rub olive oil into the new cutting board – something he said his real mother would never tell him to do.

After stabbing his mother, Cope fled several blocks to Taylorsville Road, where police found him standing in a driveway, wearing only his underwear, a small blanket and one flip-flop in 40-degree weather. Police said Cope had blood on him, as well as scratches and cuts on his back and extremities.

Zachary Cope said little during his sentencing. Under questioning by Williamson, he acknowledged that he would require treatment for his mental illness for the rest of his life.

McHugh recommended that Cope be evaluated immediately to address concerns about where Cope should be housed during his incarceration. Although a judge cannot choose where a prisoner is sent, McHugh recommended that Cope be sent to an appropriate facility equipped to address his mental illness.

Image via Bucks County District Attorney's Office