An elderly Baton Rouge man who confessed Friday to beating his mentally handicapped son to death faces 10 years in prison when he returns to court next month.
Ellsworth Hull, 83, plead guilty to manslaughter during a hearing inside the 19th Judicial District Courthouse. The conviction stems from a February 2020 incident where prosecutors said he beat his special needs son, Derrick Christophe, 40, with a wooden mop handle and metal broomstick. Christophe suffered internal bleeding and died from multiple blunt force trauma wounds.
Hull was indicted for second-degree murder and his trial had been slated to begin Aug. 18. If he’d been convicted of the murder charge, he faced mandatory life in prison without parole…