Kansas man gets four years for beheading man with guitar string

LYNDON, Kan. – A Kansas man has been sentenced to four years and two months in prison in the 2011 beheading of another man with a guitar string.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that James Paul Harris was sentenced Monday in Osage County District Court for involuntary manslaughter in the death of 49-year-old James Gerety. Harris originally was charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded no contest to the reduced charge in December.

A former girlfriend testified last year that Harris told her he shot the victim in the stomach, tortured him for two days and then cut off his head. Prosecutors allege Harris kept Gerety’s head for months for some type of religious practice. Part of the skull was found in March 2012 in rural Osage County on land where Harris’ father lived.

This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Kansas man gets four years for beheading man with guitar string."