Thursday, June 4, 1998 | 11:24 a.m.
Charles Michael May, 38, was sentenced Wednesday to at least 20 years for second-degree murder plus another 24 years for cashing checks out of his victim's bank account.
May told Washoe District Judge Janet Berry he was saddened by the death of Col. Robert Whitmore, 79.
Deputy District Attorney Dan Greco described the beating as a "massacre.
"This wasn't a killing, it was an absolute overkilling," Greco said in urging the maximum penalties.
"The skull in the front of the face was busted into dozens and dozens of pieces," and 17 ribs were fractured, he said.
Court documents show May had gambled and won nearly $45,000 in the three months leading up to Whitmore's death last spring. Whitmore's body was found in a footlocker near Frenchman Lake 35 miles north of Reno.
Whitmore's daughter, Dana Adler, testified at the sentencing hearing that she continues to have nightmares about her father's death.
When his body was shipped for burial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., his head was left behind with authorities to be used as evidence, she said.
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