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Newly Released Man Allegedly Killed Mom

Two days after he finished 30-year prison sentence.

A man in Atlantic City was charged with murdering his mother just two days after he was released from his 30-year prison sentence. Steven Pratt is being held on $1 million bail in the murder of this mother, Gwendolyn. Pratt was convicted of shooting a neighbor in the head in October 1984, when he was 15 years old. Pratt served 30 years for the murder, which occurred after the neighbor fought and beat Pratt, according to the appeal. Gwendolyn Pratt was found unresponsive Sunday when police responded to a 911 call, and her son was in the apartment when they arrived. She died of “massive blunt head injuries,” according to a press release from the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office. “It’s usually quiet back there. But a guy stays in prison for 30 years, since he was 15, and who knows,” said Warren Massey, former chairman of the Atlantic City Housing Authority. “He probably just snapped.”