An eastern Pennsylvania man has pleaded guilty to accidentally starting a fire that killed his bedridden mother while he tried to get a cat to come out of hiding.

Twenty-six-year-old Chad Matthew Lever pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter on Monday and was sentenced to two years' probation. Lever told police he flicked a lighter under his mother's bed to scare her cat up with her.

Lever says he was walking downstairs when he heard his mother, Lisa House, screaming. The 47-year-old woman had Lou Gehrig's disease and could not walk without assistance.

House died on the way to a hospital from the Feb. 3 fire in Slatington.

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Lehigh County First Assistant District Attorney Steven Luksa says Lever was grossly negligent but did not intend to kill his mother.

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Information from: The Morning Call, http://www.mcall.com