Man gets 25-47 years in 2009 bludgeoning death

A 56-year-old northwestern Lower Peninsula man has been sentenced to 25-47 years in prison in the 2009 bludgeoning death of his girlfriend. The Traverse City Record-Eagle reported Robert Cheek told a judge in Benzie County Circuit Court in Beulah that he doesn't remember killing Valerie Smith in April 2009. The Frankfort man blamed an addiction to prescription drugs in the hammer attack. Cheek told the court Tuesday his remorse "cannot be described in words.'

AP Wire

Oct 5, 2011

Cheek pleaded no contest last month to second-degree murder. Authorities have said evidence in the case pointed to him as the killer.

The judge also sentenced Cheek in an attack on a man with a rock in Manistee County after the killing. He had pleaded no contest in that case as well.