Gordon Steven Ivankovic, 57, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after initially being charged with his mother Marija's 2023 murder.
Her friends found the 81-year-old woman's lifeless body in the kitchen of her Maribyrnong home, in Melbourne's northwest.
They had come over expecting to spend the night playing cards together, but her son had killed her hours earlier.
Ivankovic went to visit his mother to help fit a mattress about 12.30pm on June 12, 2023, but ended up having an argument with her that escalated into a fatal assault.
He grabbed the elderly woman and placed pressure to her face and neck, causing her death.
He then fled without calling for help, leaving his mother's friends to find her body five hours later.
Ivankovic's sister tried calling him the day her mother was found dead but he did not return her contact for six days.
Ivankovic returned to the crime scene the day after the killing, ducking under the crime tape to try and go inside the family home.
He became irritated when he couldn't go inside and said: "I need to know is everyone OK in there?"
Ivankovic bought a train ticket to Sydney under a different name and then took a bus to Brisbane, arriving in the Sunshine State on June 20.
He sought assistance from a homelessness organisation while in Queensland, which helped him to buy plane tickets to return to Melbourne.
Ivankovic was arrested on June 23 in South Yarra, charged with murder and later pleaded guilty to manslaughter after accepting a sentence indication.
Police attended the Maribyrnong property five times between 1993 and 2019 in response to incidents between Ivankovic and his mother, the court was told previously.
Janine Staples, Ivankovic's sister who attended court for his sentence on Monday, previously said "the pain of her loss will stay with me forever" and her mother's absence had left a void in her life.
Justice Jane Dixon took into account Ivankovic's difficult upbringing, mental health instability and drug addiction issues as she decided to jail him for a maximum of eight years.
He will be eligible for parole in five years, but with time served could be freed on parole in less than four.
The judge accepted Ivankovic's offending was spontaneous and unplanned, and he was experiencing shame and remorse for killing the only supporter in his life.
"Your mother trusted you, was elderly and vulnerable, you assaulted her in her own home where she should've been safe," Justice Dixon told him.
"She was an important person in your life, a support for you and you miss her. You are now without family support."
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