Westmont man sentenced to 35 years for father’s murder

(WHEATON) A Westmont man convicted of stabbing his 64-year-old father to death in 2011 has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

William V. Clifford III, 35, was convicted Jan. 30 of first-degree murder after a four-day jury trial, according to a statement from the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.

Judge Robert Kleeman handed down the 35-year sentence at a hearing Monday at the Wheaton courthouse, the state’s attorney’s office said.

Clifford III stabbed his father, William Clifford Jr., several times on May 28, 2011, after the elder man went to visit his son at his home at Westmont’s Homestead Studio Suites, at 855 Pasquinelli Drive, prosecutors said.

A fight started during the visit, and police later found the father bleeding and lying in a hallway on the third floor of the complex, authorities said. Clifford Jr. was later pronounced dead at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove.

The son left the scene but returned several hours later and was arrested without incident by Westmont police, officials said.

Clifford III will be required to serve all 35 years of his sentence before he is eligible for parole, officials said. He will receive credit for more than 3 1/2 years spent in prison since his arrest.