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Man pleads guilty in stoning death of 70-year-old

An Upper Darby man who admitted killing a 70-year-old close friend by striking him with a rock placed in a sock has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to third-degree murder.

An Upper Darby man who admitted killing a 70-year-old close friend by striking him with a rock placed in a sock has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to third-degree murder.

Under a plea agreement, John J. Thomas, 29, was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in jail for slaying Murray J. Seidman of Lansdowne in January 2011.

Thomas, who expressed his remorse to the victim's family Friday when he appeared in Delaware County Court, has been hospitalized for mental illness several times, said his attorney, Mary Beth Welch. - Anthony R. Wood