Steven Pratt, the black man accused of beating his mother to death less than two days after being released from prison for another murder, admitted to the crime at his arraignment in New Jersey

The 45-year-old black male wept, and despite the judge advising him not to speak without an attorney present, he said, "I don't want a trial. I'm guilty. ... I have failed. ... I have no lawyer. I have nobody." When his bail was set at $1 million, he said it "doesn't matter." Pratt's uncle, the brother of Pratt's mother, said that Gwendolyn Pratt was excited when her son was released and took him to IHOP after picking him up at Bayside State Prison. She also threw him a welcome-home party at her house in Atlantic City that night, but on the following Sunday morning, police were called to the house to find the 64-year-old dead. Pratt had served 30 years for shooting and killing a neighbor in 1984. A few months ago, Pratt passed on an offer to go to a halfway house where he could ready himself for his release.