A 25-year-old Tennessee man pleaded guilty this morning to the second-degree murder of a mentally ill man who died 12 days after he was found brutally beaten in an Old Town alley.

Whited.

Connor Oneal Whited, charged with fatally beating 55-year-old Brett Alan Keiling on Sept. 26, 2019, faces 15 years to life in state prison. He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 27, which is his 26th birthday. Whited has been in custody since about a month after the beating, so he has more than three years of custody credit.

He had been scheduled to enter his plea last week but changed his mind. This morning he was hesitant at times as Judge Kelly Neel advised him of the rights he was giving up by admitting his crime.

“Do you have any questions for me?” the judge asked Whited.

After a very long pause, Whited said, “Am l going to be OK?”

“In prison?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know.”

Neel went on to advise Whited to take advantage of programs while in prison and to avoid conflicts with other inmates.

He must serve the entire term, which with credits will be approximately 12 years, before being eligible for parole. Because he was 22 at the time of the murder, he also is eligible to apply for the state’s Youthful Offender Program.

If accepted into that program he could be eligible for parole a little earlier.

“It’s possible,” Neel told Whited.

Whited’s victim, Brett Keiling, was an Indiana resident who had recently arrived in Eureka. Keiling had a long criminal record in his home state, along with a long history of mental illness.

Whited himself was declared mentally incompetent a few months after his arrest.

Now, Judge Neel told Whited this morning, “You are on medication and doing well, which you weren’t at the time (of the murder.)”

When Whited was arrested, Eureka police said the beating was a targeted attack, not a random crime.

Whited is represented by appointed attorney Joe Judge. Deputy District Attorney Luke Bernthal is the prosecutor.