Mother’s love has no mercy

As Eddie Pearl Masters approached District Judge James Bixler on Thursday, her son, handcuffed in the jury box with other defendants, pleaded with her.

"Mama, please don't do this," Ricky Masters said before his sentencing.

"Please," he said again.

But his mother was resolute. She unfolded a piece of paper and began to read.

"Don't think for one minute that he is not loved," she said. "But I know my son. I know he has a propensity for killing. Violence comes naturally to him."

A jury convicted her son in June of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon on a victim older than 60.

The victim was Eddie Masters. Her son, who has a history of mental disorders, slit her throat at her Henderson apartment two years ago when, concerned for her safety because of his threats, she was about to call police.

On Thursday, she asked that her son be locked away for the rest of his life.

Bixler obliged, determining that Ricky Masters, 48, was a habitual offender and should never have a chance at parole.

"In short, he is a hostile, dangerous predator," prosecutor Noreen Nyikos said.

Nyikos divulged Masters' sociopathic behavioral history, beginning with his teenage years.

"He started with hurting animals," Nyikos said.

As a teen, Masters strangled a litter of puppies, strung them up in a tree and gutted them, Nyikos said of an account given by Masters' sister.

According to court documents, in 1976 he was convicted of three separate residential burglaries in Texas, for which he received probation. A year later, while on probation, he was convicted of a carjacking in which he used a gun and was sentenced to 20 years. While incarcerated, he attacked a corrections officer and received an additional eight years.

After his release in 1998, he attacked a 13-year-old, a crime for which he was charged, Nyikos said.

But after his indictment, he was found to be incompetent to stand trial and was committed to a Texas mental institution, where he stayed off and on over a period of five years.

Nyikos said a case worker there determined he was a "born killer."

A discharge summary states, "The patient spends most of his time attempting to exploit, intimidate and prey on lower functioning patients. He approaches other patients and tells them he is going to kick their ass unless they give him food."

Nyikos noted in her sentencing brief that Masters had swallowed his own tongue to avoid taking medication.

Deputy Public Defender Ron Paulson emphasized that Masters, who refused an insanity defense in the attack on his mother, had been diagnosed by multiple doctors as a paranoid schizophrenic.

Paulson suggested a sentence of 16 to 40 years in prison for the crime.

Because the state has no long-term mental health facility set up for convicts such as Masters, Paulson warned that sending him to life in prison and ignoring his mental health problems was not the answer.

But Paulson acknowledged that other than prison there was no other option for Masters.

Masters had moved in with his mother after he left Texas.

Paulson said Masters was receiving outpatient services for his disorder but had stopped taking his medications two weeks before the Jan. 13, 2005, attempted murder of his mother.

After the attack, she locked herself in the bathroom and called 911. Police found her son behind a nearby shopping mall holding a picture of his mother.

While Masters was in the Clark County Detention Center, his behavior was erratic, and his trial was continued twice because doctors determined he was incompetent. A judge signed an order to forcibly medicate him, and he was found competent to stand trial.

In prison, Paulson said, "he's not going to receive the treatment he needs, and if he acts up, he'll be put in solitary confinement and no one will deal with him."

Masters never mentioned his disorder during his speech Thursday to Bixler.

He denied the attempt on his mother's life and said Nyikos' synopsis of his history was hearsay.

"They said I had a knife, but there wasn't no pictures. My mother said I had cut her, but she didn't know what the weapon was," he said.

At times during his sentencing, Masters engaged in random verbal outbursts, prompting Bixler to eventually tell him to "shut up."

Nyikos assured Eddie Masters before court that her son would be wearing chains and couldn't escape from the jury box.

"She is glad it's over," Nyikos said. "Ms. Masters is terrified of her son."