A man released from prison after completing a 30-year sentence for killing a neighbour was sentenced Friday to 25 more years in prison for killing another woman– his mother.
Steven Pratt pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter for killing 64-year-old Gwendolyn Pratt at their Atlantic City home in October 2014. An autopsy found that she died from massive blunt-force head injuries.
Pratt was 15 when he shot and killed his next-door neighbour Michael Anderson in an apartment building in 1984. He was tried as an adult and convicted of murder in 1986.
According to court records, Pratt and some of his friends refused to leave an apartment hallway where they were noisily hanging out, and Pratt and Anderson got in an argument. Pratt went back to Anderson’s apartment with a lead pipe, but Anderson took the pipe away from Pratt and bloodied his face, the records show.
Pratt then returned with a borrowed handgun and shot Anderson in the face and shoulder, court records show. Anderson, who Pratt said acted like a father to him, died days after the shooting.
Pratt told a judge through tears after killing his mother that he was guilty and didn’t want a trial.
Pratt, 46, must serve 85 percent of a 25-year prison sentence before he’ll be eligible for parole. Maybe the food in prison was so good, or just maybe he was a natural born killer.
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