Man who brutally beat wife, her daughter to death sentenced to life in prison
HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia man who used a claw hammer and bat to bludgeon his common-law wife and her daughter to death in 2013 was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday without chance of parole for 18 years.
Gerald Rushton showed no emotion as Judge Michael Wood outlined the graphic facts of the case to a hushed courtroom that was packed with friends and family of 53-year-old Elizabeth MacPherson and her 24-year-old daughter, Brittany MacPherson.
Wood said the violence of the murders and the fact that the women were killed by someone they knew and trusted weighed heavily on his sentencing decision.
“It is hard to imagine a more horrific set of facts — a mother and daughter were brutally beaten to death with a hammer and baseball bat in the sanctity of their own home by someone who should have been providing support and protection,” Wood told a courtroom packed with the women’s friends and family.