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CROCKERY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A western Michigan man will spend the rest of his life in prison in the fatal shooting of a neighbor as she cleared snow near her home.
WOOD-TV reports that 64-year-old Wendell Popejoy was sentenced Monday. He was found guilty last month of first-degree murder.
Sheila Bonge (BON'-gee) was slain in December 2017 outside her Crockery Township home, northwest of Grand Rapids. Police say she was shot while using a snowblower on an easement that she and neighbors used to get to their driveways.
Members of her family found Bonge's body under snowfall down a hill behind Popejoy's house.
After his arrest, Popejoy told police that the 59-year-old Bonge was a "nuisance to the neighborhood" and the killing was a "snap decision."
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