Man pleads guilty in cane-beating death of girlfriend

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A Bladen County man is headed to prison for at least three decades for killing his girlfriend.

Kelvin Donta McKeithan pleaded guilty in Bladen County Superior Court to second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping in connection with the death of Mary Council last year. Prosecutors say McKeithan beat Council to death with a wooden can at his Clarkton home on May 3, 2014.

At the time, Elizabethtown Police said McKeithan dropped Council off at hospital, but he never came back. Hospital staff said she was dead by the time she got there.

A judge sentenced McKeithan to 30-38 years in prison.