CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Beckley man pleaded guilty Friday in Kanawha County Circuit Court to the 2013 murder of Charleston resident Kareem Hunter.
Deveron Patterson, 26, told Kanawha County Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib he helped beat up Hunter at a Marmet apartment, assisted in putting his bound body in a vehicle and buried it in a shallow grave near Beckley.
Under the plea bargain with prosecutors, Patterson agreed to testify against co-defendant Miguel Quinones, 36, of Charleston, at his trial scheduled to begin Oct. 27.
The murder happened in the apartment of Marmet resident Kelsey Legg last September. She pleaded guilty earlier this year to being an accessory after the fact and helping dispose of Hunter’s body. She was sentenced to six to eight years in prison.
Court documents show Quinones was upset with Hunter because he felt he had disrespected him by messing with his girlfriend. The documents say Legg asked Hunter to come to her apartment to have sex and Patterson and Quinones were hiding when he got there.
Patterson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with mercy. He’ll face life in prison at his Nov. 13 sentencing. He’ll have a chance for parole in 15 years.