Albion man sentenced to 41 years for shooting mom

A birthday gift for an Albion man Monday was a sentence of four decades in prison.

David Seifert was marking his 40th birthday when he appeared before Calhoun County Circuit Judge Conrad Sindt after Siefert entered pleas in October for shooting his mother, Patricia Siefert, on Aug. 24.

"It is without difficulty that I impose the maximum sentence under the guidelines," Sindt said.

Siefert was sentenced to 39 to 80 years in prison after entering a no-contest plea to assault with intent to murder and two more years for use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Siefert had nothing to say before the sentence.

He was arrested by the Calhoun County Sheriff Department after deputies were called to the home he shared with his mother in the 28000 block of J Drive in Sheridan Township.

Deputies found Patricia Siefert at the nearby home of a relative. She had been shot in the shoulder. David Siefert was arrested in Albion a short time later.

Patricia Siefert said she awoke that morning as her adopted son shot her in the shoulder with a .22 caliber rifle. The gun jammed and when he left the doorway of her bedroom, she testified at an earlier hearing, she fled the house. Her son continued to fire at her pickup truck as she drove away.

Siefert did not speak with arresting officers and investigators said he may have been angry that his mother asked him to mow the lawn the previous day. Others told investigators Siefert also was angry because money provided for him by his biological grandparents was invested in the stock market while he was in prison and lost during the Great Recession.

Patricia Siefert did not appear in court Monday but in a written statement to the judge she said 60 small pellets remain in her body and she remains afraid.

"I am afraid in my own home and I am afraid outside of my home," she wrote. "I still can't sleep in my bedroom. I hope no one else ever has to feel what it's like to run for their life."

Siefert had been living with his mother since his release from prison March 1, 2013, after serving nearly 20 years for criminal sexual conduct with a 5-year-old girl

"David Siefert is an evil coward who preys on children and women," his mother wrote.

Defense attorney James Jordan said his client was "taking credit for what he has done and plead for what he has done."

But Assistant Prosecutor Angelique Camfield called the shooting "a heinous offense. She adopted him as a young boy and cared for him and provided for him and gave him love and encouragement and discipline and attempted to teach him right from wrong."

Camfield noted that Siefert collected 107 major misconduct tickets during his 19 years in prison. But said his mother gave him a place to to stay after his release.

"He just wasted all that and tried to kill this woman who did nothing but try to provide for him and give him love and affection," Camfield said.

Call Trace Christenson at 966-0685. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson