Springfield man pleads guilty in beating death

SPRINGFIELD — A Springfield man has pleaded guilty in the 2010 beating death of a railroad worker whose body was discovered by a co-worker.

The State Journal-Register in Springfield reports that 41-year-old Prie Patterson pleaded guilty on Thursday to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 31 years in prison for killing Larry Boyer during a suspected robbery.

They say the 58-year-old Boyer was beaten to death with a board inside his apartment in June 2010. His body was discovered by a co-worker after Boyer did not show up for work at the Norfolk Southern Railroad in Jackson.

The apartment had been ransacked, and Boyer’s car was later found abandoned on a city street.

Authorities say DNA evidence linked Patterson to the crime.