Man pleads guilty to killing woman with bat

VANCOUVER, Wash. — A man has pleaded guilty to killing a Vancouver woman with a baseball bat in June 2011.

The Columbian reported that 33-year-old Mitchell O’Brien pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in Clark County Superior Court. He had been charged with first-degree murder.

The victim, 57-year-old Deneace McSpadde, was described as a friend of O’Brien’s.

The man was serving a 41-month sentence at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen for a bank robbery that happened four days after the homicide when investigators arranged for him to be transported to Clark County to face the murder charge.

Sentencing is set for Sept. 16.

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