BRANDON, Mississippi (AP) — An ex-convict has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the grisly killing of a white supremacist in Mississippi.

Vincent McGee had been charged with capital murder after Richard Barrett’s body was found beaten, stabbed 16 times and burned in his home in April 2010. The 23-year-old black man admitted to the lesser charge of manslaughter on Thursday, along with arson and burglary. A judge sentenced him to 65 years in prison on the three counts.

McGee has said he attacked Barrett because the 67-year-old made sexual advances toward him, but prosecutors have said they believed robbery was the motive. Authorities said McGee set a fire at the house in an attempt to conceal the crime.

Barrett had founded a group called the Nationalist Movement and ran it from an office in rural Mississippi. He also operated a school for skinheads.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.