Former Notre Dame honors student Patrick Mikes Jr. pleaded guilty but mentally ill to second-degree murder today for the July 27, 2012, death of his father, Patrick Joseph Mikes Sr.
The guilty plea means Mikes Jr. will be sentenced anywhere from 12 years to life, and he will receive mental health treatment while in prison.
The Troy, Mich., native will be sentenced Sept. 10. According to his attorney, Christopher Andreoff, in a statement to the Detroit News, Mikes Jr. could be considered for parole.
Mikes Jr. and his younger brother reported their father missing July 29, 2012, according to a press release from the Troy Police Department. The brothers told police they had last seen their father two days earlier when he left for a bike ride. Mikes Sr. was found beaten to death in a cornfield.
Mikes Jr. was arrested on an open murder charge Aug. 8, 2012, after police discovered evidence of a violent dispute in the family's basement.
Mikes Jr. was diagnosed as bipolar in 2008.
Mikes Sr. was a 1979 alumnus of Notre Dame.
