Bluffton man admits fatally beating another man with bat

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - A northeastern Indiana man likely faces more than 50 years in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill Wednesday to fatally beating another man with a baseball bat.

Levi A. Arnold of Bluffton enter the pleas in Allen Superior Court to charges of murder and resisting law enforcement for the March 7, 2020, attack outside a Fort Wayne Walmart.

The beating victim, 44-year-old Damarcus Walker, died April 11 from his injuries, WANE-TV reported.

Arnold's plea agreement with prosecutors calls for a sentence of 51 1/2 years in prison. Arnold is due to be sentenced April 16.

Police were called to the Walmart on a report of a suspicious person driving around the parking lot wearing a black ski mask. Witnesses told police that Arnold may have struck Walker with the vehicle and then got out of the vehicle and hit him with a black baseball bat.

Arnold fled the scene but was later arrested.