Just two days after 45-year-old Steven Pratt was released from a 30-year prison sentence for murder, he was back behind bars for beating his mother to death. Police found 64-year-old Gwendolyn Pratt, Sunday (Oct. 5) at her home in Atlantic City, dead from massive blunt injuries to the head.
Pratt had been freed from three decades of incarceration last Friday (Oct. 3). He began his sentence at the age of 15. The family had thrown a welcome home party for Pratt over the weekend, where he was reportedly heard asking to stay with a cousin instead of continuing to stay with an aunt.
Police responded to a call at his mother’s residence at 6:29 a.m. Sunday morning. Pratt was taken to the Atlantic County jail where he is being held on $1 million cash bail.
In 1984 Pratt, then a minor, was tried as an adult for the murder of next-door neighbor Michael Anderson. He would later testify that Anderson was like a father to him.
Pratt shot Anderson in the face twice with a borrowed gun, after an argument turned physical. He unsuccessfully appealed the 30-year sentence in 2008, and two times prior.
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