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Posted: Fri 4:50 AM, Jun 04, 2010
Reporter: Associated Press Email
Man gets life for fatal bat beating
OCALA, Fla. (AP) --
A 21-year-old north Florida man has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally beating a homeless man with an aluminum baseball bat.
James Elton Roberts pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree
murder.
In November 2007, prosecutors say Elton and his cousin,
then-16-year-old William Anthony Myers, came across 44-year-old
Robert Towns Leigh, who was making his way from Tallahassee to
Miami. His body was found the next morning on a bench outside an
Ocala store.
Roberts was schedule to go on trial in August. Facing a possible
death penalty, he accepted a plea deal with life in prison.
Myers, now 19, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after
pleading guilty to second-degree murder in September 2009.
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