WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - A Spencer man has been convicted in the 2013 killing of a fellow patient in the psychiatric ward of a Massachusetts hospital.
Aldo Dunphe was found guilty Monday by a Worcester Superior Court jury of first-degree murder and related crimes in the death of 31-year-old Ratna Bhattarai, of Worcester.
Prosecutors say the 26-year-old Dunphe killed Bhattarai in November 2013 in the psychiatric unit at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.
Police say Dunphe told investigators he tried to smother Bhattarai with a pillow, choked and beat him, and stuffed a wash cloth in the victim’s mouth and filled his nose with paper towels to stop him from breathing.
Sentencing is scheduled for Thursday. A first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
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