Yesterday would have been Brendon Martin's 22nd birthday. But rather than regaling him with gifts, his parents spent the morning at the sentencing hearing for the man who fatally stabbed their 19-year-old son and then beheaded, dismembered and eviscerated him, and buried his remains in a shallow grave.

"We should be celebrating Brendon's birthday today," his father, Craig H. Martin told the judge. "Instead we're talking about evisceration and decapitation. We should be talking about graduation and job prospects."

The victim's mother, Sarah A. Memel, brought eight framed photographs of the athlete, artist and animal lover at various ages to show to Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kathleen A. Durkin.

"No one could have known when he answered the ad 'Roommate Wanted' off his college bulletin board that he was walking into an ambush resulting in his death," his mother said in a written statement read by the prosecutor.

She told the court she had suffered a heart attack and had been hospitalized 10 times, and the victim's father testified he'd been hospitalized 12 times and had attempted suicide three times since the brutal attack on their son, who was a freshman at Community College of Allegheny County, Allegheny Campus.

The defendant, James M. Baldwin, 24, said he didn't have anything to say. His new lawyer, Kevin Abramovitz, said his client planned to appeal the conviction.

Mr. Baldwin's family and friends declined to comment.

Judge Durkin then sentenced Mr. Baldwin to life without parole based on his jury conviction in February for first-degree murder. The judge added one to two years for his conviction on abuse of a corpse. The defense counsel at trial argued that Mr. Baldwin, who had no adult criminal record, was insane and suffering from a schizophrenic disorder at the time of the slaying.

The University of Pittsburgh junior confessed to county police detectives that he had fought with his roommate of five months because he believed Mr. Martin's marijuana use had caused Mr. Baldwin's girlfriend to have a miscarriage. He told police he stabbed Mr. Martin multiple times with a 12-inch survival knife as Mr. Martin lay on the floor coughing up blood and asking "Why?"

He told officials he dismembered the victim and placed the remains and cutting tools in trash bags which he hid in a shallow grave in an isolated area in Collier. Mr. Baldwin said he returned home and cleaned up the scene.

Ms. Memel ended her written statement by stating she hoped Mr. Baldwin's life would be "a living hell as he spends the rest of his life in prison for cutting my sweet son in pieces."