CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man who admitted killing his wife at their apartment in east Charlotte in March 2015 will spend at least 16 years in prison.
Police arrested Ray Edward Matheson soon after he killed his wife, Amber, in their apartment. He pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder as the mother and grandmother of the woman he killed watched. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Tammy Foster, Amber Matheson’s mother, said Ray Matheson's family had seen signs that he was suffering from mental illness, but didn’t do enough to keep Amber safe.
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“There needs to be something we could do that could have prevented this,” said Foster, who said she had tried to warn her daughter, but she would not listen. “We tried to get her out of that situation. She loved him so much she wouldn't leave him because she was afraid he would take his own life. She died for love.”
Foster spoke briefly during the hearing, and showed Matheson a picture of the child who will now grow up without a mother.
“She's going to be 2 in April. She reminds me so much of Amber -- it's uncanny how much she is like her mother,” Foster said. "How are you supposed to tell a girl that your mother's gone because your father took her by his own hands?”
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