A Pennsylvania has been found guilty of beating his roommate to death during an argument over some stolen beer.
Justin Vankirk was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after a non-jury trial on Monday.
The 35-year-old Brentwood resident confronted 58-year-old roommate Charles Parker about the Keystone Ice beer last year and fought with him.
Justin Vankirk, 35, (left) was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of his friend and roommate Charles Parker, 58, (right). The pair had an argument over some stolen beer
The two began to argue in Parker’s bedroom where Vankirk hit his roommate several times in the face and head.
As Parker was bleeding from his lips and mouth, Vankirk dragged his body to the dining room ‘because he did not want any blood to get on his carpet’, he told officers.
He then left him lying on the floor and went to bed.
Vankirk says he did not call 911 until the following afternoon when he returned home around 4.30pm and saw Parker still lying on the flooring – not breathing.
Valkirik initially claimed he knew nothing of circumstances leading up to the fall, but officers found a picture of Parker’s body on Vankirk’s cell phone that had been taken at 4.49am.
Vankirk, who posted a number of selfies posing with various types of beer, told police that the fight began when Parker stole some of the beers he had bought
Parker was pronounced dead at the scene. He had suffered bruising and swelling, and had ‘abnormalities about the back’ of his head.
Officers noted that Vankirk’s knuckles were swollen and that he had blood on one of his shorts.
Vankirk also initially gave investigators ‘various accounts’ of how he found Parker and his ‘timeline of events had varied as well’.
Parker was pronounced dead at their Brentwood, Pennsylvania apartment (pictured). He had suffered bruising and swelling, and had ‘abnormalities about the back’ of his head
When Vankirk was finally taken into custody he ‘admitted that he got into a confrontation with the victim’, according to authorities.
He also told police he had tried to clean up Parker’s blood with water
A defense attorney conceded during a trial last week Vankirk punched Parker multiple times but said Parker’s fatal head injury could have come from falling down while drunk, something she alleged he had a history of doing.
The judge says Vankirk didn’t mean to kill his longtime friend but his actions caused the death.
Parker’s death at the hands of Vankirk rattled their next-door neighbors, who said at the time that the men had been friends and roommates for years.
‘When we first got the news, we were shocked,’ Sarah Spreckic said to WPXI. ‘We thought maybe he fell.’
‘This was the last thing we thought, just a complete surprise. They were really good neighbors. We liked [both of them] a lot.’
Neighbor Igor Spreckic said both men were known to be heavy drinkers.
‘So there was alcohol involved,’ he said. ‘In their spare time, alcohol was involved always.’