STEVENS POINT, WI (WTAQ) – A Plover man has been found guilty of intentionally beating his 77-year-old step-father to death with a baseball bat.
A Portage County jury deliberated for over 5 hours Thursday, before rejecting a defense request to consider a lesser charge of reckless homicide against 33-year-old Andrew Pray.
He’ll be sentenced June 9th for first-degree intentional homicide, which carries a life sentence. However, Judge Thomas Eagon can set a date for a possible supervised release if he so chooses.
Pray was convicted in the beating death last May of Christopher Bonnstetter. The defense conceded that Pray wanted to hurt his step-father, as Pray urged his mother to speed up her proceedings to divorce Bonnstetter.
The defense also highlighted Pray’s mental health issues, but withdraw an insanity plea earlier. Prosecutor Cass Cousins said it was because a state doctor found that Pray’s mental state was not severe enough to support a finding of insanity, with treatment at a mental institution instead of prison time.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
