ABILENE, Texas (AP) - Authorities say a West Texas man must serve life in prison for his role in the 2014 fatal beating of a man he found at an ex-girlfriend’s home.
John Patrick Gutierrez pleaded guilty Monday in Abilene to tampering with evidence. Court records show the 40-year-old Abilene man also faced a murder charge, which was dropped in the plea deal over the attack using a wrench.
Prosecutors say Carey Rod Tate was beaten while at the apartment of a woman Gutierrez formerly dated. Investigators say Tate’s body was transported in a dog crate and buried near Hawley.
A second man charged with helping dispose of the body pleaded guilty in May to tampering with evidence related to a human corpse and received eight years of probation.
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