FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man accused of bludgeoning his father to death aboard a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Mexico has been sentenced to nine years and seven months in prison.
Court records show that 32-year-old Casey Hickok was sentenced Monday in Fort Myers federal court. He pleaded guilty in June to assault with a dangerous weapon as part of a plea deal. He had been facing a second-degree murder charge.
Investigators say 54-year-old Robert Hickok was sleeping aboard the boat, about 65 miles (100 kilometers) west of Marco Island, when his son beat him with an alternator in March.
The Naples Daily News reports Assistant U.S. Attorney Simon Eth said his office couldn’t prosecute a murder charge after the Lee County Medical Examiner’s Office amended the father’s manner of death from homicide to undetermined.
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