MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA (KYW Newsradio) — The Horsham woman accused of killing her son with a belt then driving her SUV into the ocean last year waived her right to a jury trial Friday and will instead have a Montgomery County judge decide her fate.
Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead, 51, is charged with first-degree murder, accused of choking her 11-year-old son to death with a belt while he slept in her bed last April.
DiRienzo-Whitehead’s husband slept in another room the night of April 10. When he woke up, he found his son unresponsive and his wife gone.
Police say DiRienzo-Whitehead drove her Toyota Highlander into the Ocean in Cape May. When the car stopped running, she walked from Cape May to Wildwood Crest, where she was picked up by police.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, DiRienzo-Whitehead told detectives she didn’t want her son to grow up with financial struggles.
Her lawyer said she killed her son during some sort of psychotic episode during a deterioration of her mental capacities.
DiRienzo-Whitehead has been ruled competent to stand trial.
She is set for a bench trial before Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter starting Feb. 15.