Woman convicted of first-degree murder for strangling 11-year-old son in Horsham, Pa.

HORSHAM, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- A Horsham, Pennsylvania woman was found guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday in the strangling death of her 11-year-old son.

Ruth Dirienzo-Whitehead, 51, was also found guilty of possession of an instrument of crime in the death of Matthew Whitehead.

She was asserting an insanity defense in the non-jury trial.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Friday morning. Dirienzo-Whitehead is facing life in prison.

Victim impact statements will be read in court.

The murder happened in April 2023. Police were called to the family's home in the 500 block of Privet Road after the boy's father found him dead.

Dirienzo-Whitehead told police she didn't want her son to grow up with her family's financial problems, so she strangled him with her husband's belt as he slept.

Investigators say DiRienzo-Whitehead killed her son after he went to sleep, then drove the family's SUV to Cape May, New Jersey.

She drove the vehicle into the ocean off Beach Avenue, investigators say, and once the vehicle could no longer be driven she walked to Wildwood Crest.

That's where DiRienzo-Whitehead was taken into custody.