Brandon Gaertner, 27, of Arnold has been charged with murder for allegedly beating and killing a St. Louis County man.
The victim, James Kwiatkowski, 62, was found dead in his south St. Louis County apartment in August, court papers show.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Gaertner on Aug. 28 with second-degree murder, a class A felony.
Gaertner was being held Monday (Sept. 28) on a $100,000 cash-only bond in the St. Louis County Jail, the St. Louis County Police reported.
Gaertner’s lawyer, Brice Donnelly, did not return a phone call for comment.
Kwiatkowski was found dead at 8:48 a.m. Aug. 2 after a fire was put out in his apartment in the 4000 block of Nottingham Estates Drive. The body was found in a closet, the probable-cause statement in the case said.
Kwiatkowski’s body showed signs of “blunt force trauma,” and “information and forensic evidence” linked Gaertner to the death, the report said.
The report did not include information about a possible motive.
Gaertner, a prior offender, previously pleaded guilty to felony charges for drug trafficking, fraudulent use of a credit or debit card and burglary stemming from incidents that occurred between October 2012 and March 2013 in Jefferson County. In December 2013, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for all three felony charges, court records show.
In addition, Gaertner currently is facing a class D felony forgery charge in St. Louis County, according to court records.
A class A felony is punishable by 10 to 30 years or life in prison, and a class D felony carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison.