NEW YORK (AP) -- An inmate convicted of trying to hire a hit man to kill his mother so he could have early access to his inheritance was sentenced Thursday to up to 15 years in state prison, New York prosecutors said.

Joseph Salvio pleaded guilty on July 25 to conspiracy to commit murder, the Queens district attorney's office said in a release.

Salvio, 30, was jailed at Rikers Island on drug possession charges in April when he met an undercover police officer posing as a hit man, prosecutors said. He handed over the address and telephone number of his mother, Susan Allogramento, and detailed how he wanted her death to look like a robbery, prosecutors said.

He offered three of his mother's fur coats valued at $10,000 (euro7,249) in exchange for the killing, they said.

A woman who answered a phone registered to S. Allogramento said she had no comment Thursday. Salvio, who had completed the four-month stint at Rikers Island for the drug charges, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years to 15 years in prison.

According to a handwritten statement written by Allogramento Thursday and read at the sentencing, Salvio lead a charmed life -- complete with trips to Aruba and a home bought for him by his family. But Allogramento described her son as a man in need of treatment for anger control and drug abuse, and said she fears he will continue to try and have her killed.

"I, Joseph's mother, the victim in this case, will carry the feeling of betrayal and anger," the letter said. "I will be subjected to looking over my shoulder or wondering if someone is waiting for me at home, or around the corner to do me harm."

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