Man enters guilty plea

A Cass County man has entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill to the charge of second-degree murder.

Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz said Edward J. Hensley killed his sister, Martha Sexton, in June 2012. Sexton was found stabbed to death in her home in Mason Township.

The following month, Hensley was ordered to undergo a forensic examination to determine his competency to stand trial. In a May report from the Center for Forensic Psychiatry, Hensley was found to be sane but mentally ill.

A plea of guilty but mentally ill is treated the same as a guilty plea, with the addition that the defendant receives mental health treatment while imprisoned.

His sentence date is Dec. 20 before Judge Michael Dodge.

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