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Homeless man sentenced to seven years in 2022 beating death
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An Albuquerque man was sentenced to seven years in prison last week in the beating death last year of 59-year-old Kelvin Willie in a homeless shelter north of Downtown.
Brian Chee, 33, pleaded no contest Tuesday in 2nd Judicial District Court to voluntary manslaughter in Willie’s death. District Judge Emeterio Rudolfo also sentenced Chee to an additional two years of parole.
Albuquerque police said both men were unhoused at the time of the killing.
Willie himself called 911 around 7:15 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2022, and told a dispatcher he had been beaten up four times and “was going to get beat up again,” urging police to respond quickly, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.
A man in the background, believed to be Chee, was heard yelling, “He’s OK, he’s drunk,” the complaint said.
Police found Willie badly beaten on the sidewalk near the Steelbridge Resource Center, near Arvada and Second NW. Willie told the responding officers, “I got beat up.” He died at a hospital.
Surveillance video showed Willie swung at Chee around 6:20 p.m. before being knocked down. Police said the video showed Chee kick, punch and attack Willie repeatedly for nearly 40 minutes as he “crawls around and does not fight back.”
Chee told police he drank vodka with Willie but did not remember attacking him.
