Life sentence sought for Indiana teen who pleaded guilty to strangling 10-year-old brother

Ind. teen could face life for brother’s strangling

RISING SUN, Ind. — A judge will decide whether a southern Indiana teenager who police say strangled his 10-year-old brother to satisfy an urge to kill spends the rest of his life in prison.

Andrew Conley’s sentencing hearing was being held Wednesday in Ohio Circuit Court in the small Ohio River town of Rising Sun. Defense attorney Gary Sorge has told the Cincinnati Enquirer that Conley will testify.

The 18-year-old pleaded guilty to murder Monday, avoiding a jury trial. He was to be tried as an adult but couldn’t face the death penalty because he was 17 when his brother, Conner, was killed last November.

Conley faces a minimum sentence of 45 years in prison. Prosecutors have requested a sentence of life without parole.