[symple_googlemap title=”Palm Springs slaying” location=”4200 Calle San Antonio, Palm Springs, CA” height=”300″ zoom=”15″]
A 19-year-old man accused of gunning down his mother at their Palm Springs home pleaded not guilty Monday to a murder charge.
Brian Patrick Conroy is charged with killing 36-year-old Amber Lane, who was shot just before 4:30 a.m. Nov. 20 in the 4100 block of Calle San Antonio. She died at Desert Regional Medical Center about two hours later.
Deputy District Attorney Scot Clark said last week that the defendant claims “voices commanded” him to commit the killing and that “he’s not able to control his impulses,” leading him to request that Conroy’s $1 million bail be increased out of concern for public safety.
Monday morning, Clark again requested that Conroy be held on $5 million bail, though he conceded there may be reasons not to believe Conroy’s claims regarding the “voices.”
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Harold W. Hopp kept Conroy’s bail at $1 million, but said the prosecution’s request for an increase would be revisited at a hearing on Tuesday.
Palm Springs police have not commented on a motive for the killing.
Conroy, a former Palm Springs High School student who has no prior criminal record in Riverside County, appeared in court Monday morning clad in a dress shirt and tie and could be seen wiping tears from his face.
He did not appear in court last Wednesday. Attorneys said he was in a hospital, but did not elaborate.
Lane was the director of marketing and public relations at the Wang’s in the Desert restaurant in Palm Springs, where her husband David is the general manager.
A GoFundMe page has been established to assist the family with funeral expenses.
— City News Service