St. Cloud Man Pleads Guilty for His Role in 2022 Murder

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The murder trial of a St. Cloud man has been canceled after he accepted a plea agreement.

54-year-old Paul Coleman has pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting 2nd-degree murder for the death of 39-year-old Michael Batsche. As part of the agreement, a charge of aiding and abetting 1st-degree premeditated murder will be dismissed.

St. Cloud Police were called to a home in the 1200 block of 10th Avenue South on May 24th, 2022. Officers arrived to find a man lying on the floor by the back door with a gunshot wound to his head.

Records show footage from the home's motion cameras saw the victim alone in the backyard before the shooting. Roughly ten minutes later the camera is activated again showing Coleman and another man, identified as 44-year-old Alphonso Cotto, near a detached garage facing near the back door where the victim was found. Court records show Coleman could be seen holding what is believed to be a gun in his right hand. Coleman and Cotto are then seen running to a vehicle registered to Coleman.

Court documents show that Coleman will testify at Cotto's 1st-degree murder trial in April.

As part of the plea agreement, Coleman will be sent to prison for 16 years when he is sentenced in May.

Alphonso Cotto - Stearns County Jail