Sentencing will be held later this month for a Red Deer man who has admitted to killing a resident of the Potter’s Hands affordable housing complex just over three years ago.
The body of former Eckville resident Curtis Leroy Rangen, 43, was found on May 3, 2013, in the freezer of his apartment in the Red Deer housing complex.
RCMP investigators alleged at the time that Rangen had been killed during a break-in on either April 30 or May 1, 2013.
A charge of first-degree murder was laid against Mark William Bitterman, now 33, following his arrest on other charges in B.C. on June 13, 2013. The charge was later reduced to second-degree murder.
Bitterman had been scheduled for a jury trial on the second-degree murder charge, opening on Monday morning in the Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench. However, following an eleventh-hour agreement between Crown prosecutor Edward Ring and defence counsel Kim Ross of Calgary, he instead entered a plea of guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Sentencing was adjourned to June 20.