Albany DA: Tracey Zetzsche pleads guilty in son's death
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Tracey Zetzsche, 53, a former Commack resident, faces up to two decades in prison after she admitted to killing her son by repeatedly stabbing him with a knife and striking him with a hammer, the Albany County district attorney said. (July 31, 2012) Credit: Albany County DA
A former Commack woman faces up to two decades in prison after she pleaded guilty to killing her son by repeatedly stabbing him with a knife and striking him with a hammer, the Albany County district attorney said.
Tracey Zetzsche, 53, of upstate Westerlo, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, a felony, in Albany County Court, the office of District Attorney P. David Soares said Thursday in a news release.
Zetzsche faces up to 20 years in prison plus 5 years of post-release supervision on Nov. 1 when she is scheduled to be sentenced.
Authorities said Zetzsche stabbed and pounded her son to death between July 26 and July 30 of last year in an apartment the two shared in Westerlo. The victim, Gabriel Philby-Zetzsche, 22, was found days later in the apartment by a family member.
The Albany Times Union reported that Judge Steven Herrick said Tracey Zetzsche had amnesia in the time of her son's death and doesn't remember the attack.
At the time of the killing, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said there was no indication of strife between Tracey Zetzsche and her son, a graduate of Commack High School, and that the victim had been dead for about five days before a relative found the body.
Philby-Zetzsche apparently had limited use of one of his arms because of cerebral palsy, according to Apple. An autopsy showed he was killed by a stab wound to the chest and multiple blunt-force stab wounds, he said.
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