(Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette photo) Luke Kreider, seen with his attorney Antonio Ruiz and Houghton County Prosecutor Brittany Bulleit, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Houghton County Circuit Court Wednesday morning.

HOUGHTON — A Hancock man who killed a L’Anse resident during an altercation at Arbor Green last September will spend at least 15 years in prison under the terms of a plea agreement.

Luke Kreider, 19, pleaded guilty to second-degree homicide of Caleb Bynum during a hearing in Houghton County Circuit Court Wednesday morning. The charge is punishable by up to life in prison.

In exchange for the plea, a charge of open murder was dismissed. So was a charge of first-degree criminal sexual conduct stemming from a separate incident in August 2022.

Kreider attacked Lynum in the early morning of Sept. 1 at the Arbor Green apartments in Houghton. In court Wednesday, he said he had been heavily intoxicated at the time of the incident.

Lynum was hospitalized in Marquette and placed on life support, later dying from his injuries.

The agreement stipulates Kreider will be sentenced to at least 15 years. The maximum sentence will be at the discretion of the judge. Baraga County Probate Judge Timothy Brennan is serving as judge after the retirement of former Houghton County Circuit Court Judge Charles Goodman.

Sentencing will occur in 30 to 50 days. Prosecutor Brittany Bulleit will be sworn in as Houghton County Circuit Court judge before then. She will be replaced in the case by either her successor or a prosecutor appointed by the state attorney general’s office.