Calif. man testifies he didn't mean to kill mother

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – A California man accused of killing his elderly mother in San Rafael says he cried over her body after plunging a knife into her neck and slashing her throat.

The Marin Independent Journal reports that 31-year-old Richard Leroy Carlson took the stand Tuesday in his trial. Carlson said he did not plan to kill his 72-year-old mother, Eleanor, when he went to her home on March 14.

But he told jurors he attacked her after she pushed him aside during an argument in which she said he wasn't part of the family. Richard Carlson was adopted.

His attorneys say jurors should consider a manslaughter charge against him, not murder, because he did not intend to kill his mother. Prosecutors dispute that.