A Kansas teen has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his friend’s mother in Topeka.
Shawnee Co. District Attorney Mike Kagay says that on Wednesday, October 12, 17-year-old Amadeus Courage Ballou-Meyer was sentenced to prison for the 2021 homicide of Hester Workman.
On April 24, 2021, Kagay noted that officials were called to a home in the 2000 block of SW James St. when a caller reported he had found his mother dead in the garage. When they arrived, they found Workman’s body and her 16-year-old son who reported the murder.
Workman had suffered severe trauma to her head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Over the next two days, Kagay indicated that a canvas was conducted and surveillance video was collected. During the investigation, it was found that just before Workman’s son arrived home, neighbors saw and video was able to capture a boy running from the home with a baseball bat. The investigation led them to identify Ballou-Meyer as the suspect.
After his arrest, Kagay said Ballou-Meyer confessed that snuck into the house where he attempted to “scare” his friend’s mother, Workman, by pushing her as she came up the steps from the garage into the house. When she fell back and hit her head, he said he panicked and picked up the bat and started to hit her with it.
Kagay said Ballou-Meyer then ran from the scene and threw the bat into the Shunga Creek. A resident had already recovered the bat and turned it over to the police.
Due to his age, the DA said Ballou-Meyer was charged as a juvenile, but he was able to obtain authorization to prosecute him as an adult. In July, he pleaded guilty to premeditated murder in the first degree.
On Wednesday, a Shawnee Co. Court sentenced Ballou-Meyer to serve a life sentence with a minimum of 50 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.
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