The maniac charged with bludgeoning his elderly mom to death in Chinatown just before Christmas – possibly with a skateboard – had been placed in a drug program that allowed him to shave off almost 90% of his prison sentence despite multiple prior arrests and schizophrenia, The Post has learned.
China-born Wei Hou was sentenced to two years in state prison on felony narcotics charges in June 2025 — but instead was sent to a 90-day drug treatment program at Lakeview Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility in upstate Chautauqua County, officials said.
If he had been made to complete his full sentence, Hou, 41, would have been behind bars until 2027.
He finished the drug program on Oct. 14 and was released to parole, records show. Two months later, he killed his mother, Zhu Hou, 76, in her Monroe Street apartment, authorities said.
“They should have looked at his history,” a law enforcement source said. “He shouldn’t have been in any program that would have earned him early release.”
The Lakeview facility was initially created as a place for inmates who were first time offenders, not those with prior arrests or mental illness, according to a source familiar with the prison.
Hou had schizophrenia and was a repeat offender. After his Dec. 24 murder arrests, the U.S. Marshals Service put out a release saying he had previously been arrested in other states, without detailing the charges.
Hou also had documented mental illness, included schizophrenia, according to multiple sources.
Hou was having outbursts as far back as July 11, 2011, when he was beaten up during a stay at Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric unit, law enforcement sources said.
And his mom made two calls to cops describing him as emotionally disturbed — once before he went to prison and once after.
On Feb. 9, 2025, she called cops and said that Hou wasn’t taking his meds and that he was a diagnosed schizophrenic, law enforcement sources said.
On Dec. 5, 2025, just two weeks before she was found dead on Dec. 19, she called again saying he was “breaking the door and talking to himself,” the law enforcement source said. She also told the operator her son was emotionally disturbed and had a drug history.
Police responded and took him to Bellevue Hospital. It wasn’t clear when he got out of the hospital.
Hou shouldn’t have been placed in Lakewood at all, the source familiar with the facility said.
The source cited Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2022 Less-is-More Act as a force pushing the courts to steer criminals to the least restrictive programs possible.
“He should not have been let go in 90 days and then went out and killed his mother,” the source said.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision didn’t answer an email seeking comment about whether the state was aware of Hou’s criminal history and mental health issues.
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