News
2006-08-24
Man given 18-year
sentence in gay employer's murder
A man has been
sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 2003 stabbing and
beating death of his employer. Willie Lee Mack pleaded
A man has been
sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 2003 stabbing and
beating death of his employer. Willie Lee Mack pleaded
guilty Tuesday in Raymond, Miss., to manslaughter
in the death of Gregory Acker, who he claimed had
chased him with a baseball bat after Mack rebuffed a
sexual advance.
Mack had been charged with murder. Manslaughter
carries a maximum 20-year sentence. Mack will be given
credit for the three years already served and probably
won't have to serve all of the remaining 15 years on his
sentence, said assistant public defender Adam Powers.
Acker's mother, Marian Acker, said her son, who
was a Jackson carpenter, had befriended Mack and taken
him into his home. "My son said, 'If I don't help this
child, who will?'" Marian Acker told Hinds County
circuit judge L. Breland Hilburn. Mack's family wouldn't
comment after the plea and sentencing.
According to the court record, Mack told people
that he had lived with Acker at Acker's home in
exchange for sex because he didn't have a place to
stay. On September 4, 2003, Mack told investigators, he
refused to have any more sex because he is not gay and
was thinking about his girlfriend.
Mack said Acker began chasing him around the
house with a bat after he pulled away from his kiss on
the back of his neck. Mack told police he picked up a
knife in the kitchen and that when the two ran back into the
living room, he stabbed and beat Acker, according to court documents.
Acker's body was found by his brother. Police
said Acker's van, two VCRs, and a wallet were missing.
(AP)
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