John Swenson was sentenced to life in prison Monday after he was convicted of murdering his 75-year-old grandmother in December 2019.

Swenson, 25 and a Westminster resident, was sentenced by an Adams County Court judge. He was found guilty of first-degree murder on April 29 after a four-day trial, according to the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

“This brutal crime shocks the conscience,” said District Attorney Brian Mason. “The defendant’s brutality against his own grandmother was truly unspeakable.”

On Dec. 9, 2019, police were called to the East Bay Senior Housing complex for a welfare check. The caller said she was worried about her mother, Linda Shomberg, because she had been unable to reach her for three days.

Police found Shomberg on the floor of her apartment, in a puddle of blood. She was breathing but was unresponsive and bleeding from her head.

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Shomberg was taken to a hospital where she later died. She had suffered a brain bleed and multiple fractures to her face and skull, according to prosecutors.

Shomberg’s daughter told police that her nephew Swenson had been staying with the grandmother after recently being released from a halfway house.

The daughter said Swenson was on parole for burglary or robbery. He was also homeless and used methamphetamine, according to an affidavit. She said the family was afraid of him. 

The investigation determined that Swenson brutally battered his grandmother on Dec. 6, 2019, after they got into an argument about his lifestyle.

Her cause of death was a combination of a stroke and the blunt-force trauma to her head.

Swenson was arrested in mid-December and formerly charged in January.