A 38 year old man has been sentenced to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to murdering a Spring Valley woman.
Eddie Mentgen Jr. was sentenced on Monday for the April 2019 killing of Marissa Roberts. His guilty plea to first-degree murder avoids a bench trial which was scheduled to start next week in Bureau County Circuit Court. If he had gone to trial and been found guilty, he could have been sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.
Mentgen was charged with first-degree murder for bludgeoning to death with a hammer the then-28 year old Roberts in her apartment on April 5 of last year. Mentgen had fled to Wisconsin after the killing and was taken into custody several days later.
There will be no early release for Mentgen, who must serve 100 percent of his sentence minus the 8 months he spent behind bars while his case was pending.