Man Who Beat Wife to Death Pleads Guilty

TYLER � A man accused of killing his wife in Smith County accepted a plea deal in a Tyler courtroom on Wednesday. Judicial records show Kelly Kevin Gage, 52, of Gun Barrel City, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Gage was indicted for murder on July 28, 2014, in the beating death of his wife, 48-year-old Patti McHugh Gage. The incident happened on Thanksgiving night in 2011.

In an interview with our news partner KETK, her son, Nicholas McHugh, claimed Kelly Gage tried to kill him, too. Nicholas McHugh also stated the fatal attack wasn�t the first time she had been beaten. �I believe he went into a rage. He did something to my mom, he has a past history of hitting my mom. In Washington, he cornered her in the bathtub and was grabbing her hair and slamming her head into the tile,� McHugh said.