Michigan man sentenced to life for neighbor’s fatal shooting

A western Michigan man will spend the rest of his life in prison in the fatal shooting of a neighbor as she cleared snow near her home.

WOOD-TV reports that 64-year-old Wendell Popejoy was sentenced Monday. He was found guilty last month of first-degree murder.

Sheila Bonge (BON’-gee) was slain in December 2017 outside her Crockery Township home, northwest of Grand Rapids. Police say she was shot while using a snowblower on an easement that she and neighbors used to get to their driveways.

Members of her family found Bonge’s body under snowfall down a hill behind Popejoy’s house.

After his arrest, Popejoy told police that the 59-year-old Bonge was a “nuisance to the neighborhood” and the killing was a “snap decision.”