A man who bound and gagged a robbery victim during a home invasion in South Los Angeles pleaded no contest to second-degree murder Wednesday.
The victim, Harvey Sumpter, was 80 years old when he died five years after the Aug. 13, 2005, incident. The attack left him with injuries that kept him bedridden until his death on Feb. 19, 2010, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Harry Leon Neely Jr., 45, is expected to be sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison after reaching a plea agreement with the DA’s office, prosecutors said. He had entered the home through a window to commit a burglary, authorities said.
Sumpter was found bound and gagged in his house after the defendant entered the residence through a window to burglarize it, according to court testimony. Sumpter was badly injured and remained bedridden until he died on Feb. 19, 2010, as a result of injuries sustained during the attack.
Neely was tied to the attack several years later by DNA evidence and was arrested in March 2016 in Memphis, Tennessee.