Illinois man pleads guilty in church attack
JONESBORO -- A southern Illinois man has pleaded guilty to trying to kill two elderly women at the First Baptist Church of Anna last September.
Willis Bates of Anna pleaded guilty Tuesday in Union County Court in Jonesboro to two counts of attempted murder. Sixty-nine-year-old church secretary Mary Shepard was injured in the attack along with 76-year-old cleaning woman Leona Mount.
State's attorney Tyler Edmonds says the 46-year-old Bates was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
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