Man gets 30 years for killing his mother, Damita Collins, during argument in their Ashburn home in 2015

Andre Brown | Chicago Police

When Andre Brown and his mother, Damita Collins, got into an argument about his not having a girlfriend last year at their Ashburn home, he ended up stabbing her to death, according to Cook County prosecutors. And for that, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Brown was found guilty of murder on May 27 after a bench trial before Judge Matthew Coghlan, according to Cook County court records.

On Jan. 5, 2015, he stabbed the 54-year-old Collins in the chest, then slit her throat in the home they shared in the 3500 block of West 77th Place on Jan. 5, 2015, authorities said at the time.

Collins was administrator of the Trumbull Park Head Start Program at Ada S. McKinley School.

Collins’ husband was in the basement eating dinner and watching the Bulls game about 9 p.m. when he heard several loud noises upstairs, prosecutors said. He went upstairs and found his bedroom door locked, but before he could open it with the key, Brown yanked the door open and forced his way out.

Damita Collins | photo provided

He then found his wife lying on the floor in a pool of blood. He called 911 and tried to help her, but she died at the scene, authorities said.

The man then chased Brown, his stepson, but the younger man ran out of the house and drove off in his mother’s car, prosecutors said.

Investigators found a defensive wound on Collins’ thumb and a bloody knife in a butcher block in the kitchen, prosecutors said. Brown, who was 26 at the time, was arrested the following day.

He gave a videotaped statement to detectives admitting to killing his mother during an argument because she kept “putting him down and telling him that he needed to get a girlfriend,” prosecutors said.

Judge Coghlan sentenced Brown to 30 years in prison Wednesday, according to court records. He will receive credit for 541 days served in the Cook County Jail, and must serve three years of supervised release.

An Ashburn man told police he stabbed his mother to death after an argument because he was angry with her for putting him down and telling him to get a girlfriend, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Damita Collins, 54, was found dead Sunday night by her husband, the stepfather of Andre Brown, 26, who is charged with first-degree murder in Collins’ death, prosecutors said. Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered Brown held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Collins, who according to her LinkedIn profile managed programs for nine schools run by Ada S. McKinley Community Services, had a dispute with Brown after her husband prepared dinner Sunday night at the home the three shared in the 3500 block of West 77th Place in Chicago's Ashburn neighborhood, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Jamie Santini.

Collins’ husband made dinner and took his food to the basement to watch television, while Collins and Brown stayed upstairs, prosecutors said. While watching TV, Collins’ husband heard several loud noises from upstairs.

When police and paramedics responded to the husband’s 911 call, they found Collins with a deep stab wound to the chest, a slash wound on the neck and a defensive wound on a thumb, prosecutors said. Collins was pronounced dead at the scene after police were called about 9:45 p.m., police said.

Police found a bloody knife in a butcher block in the home’s kitchen, prosecutors said.

Brown told Chicago police detectives that he was angry with his mother for “always putting him down and telling him that he needed to get a girlfriend,” Santini said.

Brown told investigators that he used a knife to stab and slash his mother, then put the knife back in the butcher block before he fled.

Brown’s attorney said he is a graduate of Simeon Career Academy.

Tribune reporters Quinn Ford and Steve Schmadeke contributed.