West Virginia Man Sentenced For Killing Woman With Bat
May 10 2023, Published 6:30 p.m. ET
A West Virginia man who killed a woman with a bat and then dumped her body is headed to prison for her death, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Ronald McClung was sentenced in Raleigh County Circuit Court on May 9 to life without mercy for the first-degree murder of Tonya Adkins in 2021, as Front Page Detectives reported.
The defendant pleaded guilty to Adkins’ slaying in February.
Despite McClung’s varying versions of what happened, investigators determined he struck the victim in the head with a baseball bat, killing her.
According to Lootpress, McClung later admitted to police that he removed Adkins’ clothing and had intercourse with the dead woman’s body.
After an extensive search, Adkins’ remains were eventually found in brush near four-wheeler path in Beckley.
“This has been a nightmare for our family,” Adkins’ sister-in-law, Avery, told the court at the defendant’s sentencing hearing.
"When we were searching for her, we were 50 yards away from her body and didn’t even know it," she continued. "We smelled her and didn’t even know it, because he decided to dump her. He took the opportunity for her to watch her sons,” ages 9 and 11, “grow up. That is something we have to live with forever.”
Raleigh County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Dimlich told McClung he doubted he had remorse about the slaying.
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“I think you have remorse for yourself, and sitting here today, I don’t see that you have any contrition or sadness over the brutality that you have inflicted on this victim,” the judge said at the sentencing hearing.
