A man charged in the death of Dennis Day, an original cast member on Walt Disney's “Mickey Mouse Club” television program in the 1950s, has been sentenced to just over four years in prison after entering a modified guilty plea this week.
The 41-year-old man pleaded no contest Monday to charges of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of a corpse. He was a live-in handyman at Day's home in Phoenix, Oregon, with Day, 76, having been trying to evict him around the time he disappeared in mid-2018.
Prosecutors alleged that the man caused Day’s death and then used Day’s identity to spend money. Day's badly decomposed body wasn't discovered for nine months, beneath a pile of clothes at the home.
Day's family has sued the Phoenix Police Department, claiming that its failure to discover his remains in his own home for so long caused emotional distress. The lawsuit mentioned that during one search, police stepped on Day's body, causing fractures to the corpse, but they still didn't find it until April 2019 when Oregon State Police came with a cadaver-sniffing dog.
The delay in discovering the body prevented the medical examiner from determining a cause of death. The police department has denied the allegations, and a trial is set for October in Jackson County Circuit Court.
The man's criminal case faced delays due to trips to the Oregon State Hospital to determine his mental fitness to assist in his own defense, along with other legal challenges. He also faced additional charges while out of custody and has been sentenced to two years in a separate burglary case, totaling just over six years in prison.
