Life sentence upheld for Arlington Heights man who killed his father

An Illinois appellate court on Wednesday upheld a life sentence for an Arlington Heights man who was convicted of killing his father in 2011.

Matthew Nellessen was found guilty of first-degree murder for the bludgeoning and stabbing death of his father, George Nellessen, and at the time the court saw "no opportunity for rehabilitation or redemption," according to the ruling.

Prosecutors said another man held a gun on George Nellessen on April 12, 2011, while Matthew Nellessen tied him to a chair and forced him to divulge his bank account information and sign a check made out to Matthew in the amount of $100,000. Testimony reflected that Nellessen struck his still-bound father in the head four or five times with a baseball bat. When the blows failed to kill his father, Matthew Nellessen stabbed him in the neck with a kitchen knife.

During the 2014 sentencing, Judge Martin Agran said "this kind of evil should not happen in Arlington Heights."

On appeal, Nellessen's attorneys argued that the sentence was excessive because of his youth and nonviolent criminal history, but the sentence was upheld.

"We must not substitute our judgment for the trial court's determination simply because we may have weighed the factors differently," the ruling reads while explaining that the trial court did consider those factors during sentencing.

"We therefore find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing defendant to the maximum term within the statutory range."