The plea ends a trial before it began and leaves sentencing as the next major step in a case that reshaped Wisconsin’s missing-child alert law.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — An 18-year-old Milwaukee defendant pleaded guilty Monday in the 2023 killing of 5-year-old Prince McCree, admitting to charges that include first-degree intentional homicide in a case prosecutors say ended with the boy’s body left in a dumpster near his home.

The plea closed the final criminal case in a child-killing investigation that drew intense attention in Milwaukee and across Wisconsin. Erik Mendoza, who was 15 at the time of the killing, entered guilty pleas just as his jury trial was set to begin. The case had already sent co-defendant David Pietura to prison for life without parole and helped spur changes to Wisconsin’s child-alert system after Prince’s disappearance exposed gaps in how missing-child notices could be issued.

According to court records and earlier testimony summarized in the criminal case, Prince stayed home from school on Oct. 25, 2023, because he had a sore throat. Investigators said he later went to the basement of the house where he lived with his mother and where Pietura also stayed. Prince’s mother later told police she went looking for him after returning from a grocery trip and found the basement dark and empty. When officers arrived, they began searching the property and quickly found blood in the basement. Pietura first told investigators the blood came from roughhousing with Mendoza and a bloody nose, but detectives said that account fell apart as they found more blood and checked cellphone records. By the next day, police had expanded the search, used a chemical reagent to reveal suspected cleaned blood, and focused on the basement as the likely crime scene. Prosecutors said neighborhood surveillance video later captured Pietura and Mendoza moving Prince’s body on the afternoon he disappeared.

Authorities said Prince’s body was found on Oct. 26, 2023, wrapped in garbage bags, bound and gagged, in a dumpster near the home. Prosecutors have described a prolonged beating that began in the basement and continued outside. Investigators said Mendoza admitted strangling the child and striking him with a golf club. Court filings also say Pietura later told detectives he joined the attack to stop Prince from making noise. The allegations detailed in the case are among the most disturbing in Milwaukee in recent years: prosecutors said the child was struck repeatedly with a golf club, a 30-pound barbell and, finally, a concrete birdbath pedestal after he continued to whimper. Those details surfaced in charging documents, plea proceedings and later reporting as both defendants moved through court. Some questions still remain outside the criminal counts already resolved, including why the attack escalated so quickly and whether either defendant will speak further at sentencing beyond what investigators already recorded.

The case also became bigger than the courtroom because Prince’s disappearance exposed a gap in Wisconsin’s alert system. At the time, officials could not issue an Amber Alert under the existing standard because the case did not meet the narrow criteria tied to abduction information and suspect details. In response, lawmakers passed what became known as the Prince Act, a bipartisan measure signed in April 2024 that broadened the state’s options for alerting the public when children go missing. The law was named in memory of Prince McCree and Lily Peters, another Wisconsin child whose death also prompted calls for change. State officials later said the law created a Missing Child Alert pathway for some cases that do not qualify for a traditional Amber Alert. Prince’s death, then, became both a homicide case and a catalyst for a policy shift, one that his family and state leaders said they hoped would help other children be found faster.

Legal proceedings moved on separate tracks for the two defendants. Pietura pleaded guilty in June 2024 to first-degree intentional homicide as a party to a crime, and a Milwaukee County judge later sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole on July 26, 2024. Mendoza’s case took longer. Defense lawyers sought to move him into juvenile court and later pursued an insanity path, but the court kept the case in adult court and found him competent to stand trial. On Monday, Mendoza pleaded guilty to first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse and three counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety. A sixth count was not part of the final plea as the case resolved before jury selection could fully begin. His sentencing is set for June 5 at 2 p.m. in Milwaukee County court. At that hearing, prosecutors are expected to argue for a severe sentence, while the defense will have a chance to present mitigation tied to Mendoza’s age at the time of the killing and any mental-health evidence it chooses to offer.

The case has left a deep mark on Prince’s family, on the neighborhood where he vanished and on a city that followed each court hearing for more than two years. During earlier proceedings for Pietura, relatives described Prince as a lively child who loved video games and brought energy into every room. Those memories stood in painful contrast to the details investigators laid out in court. Reporters covering Monday’s plea described a hearing that was procedurally brief but emotionally heavy because it ended any public trial where witnesses might have testified in detail. That means many of the facts now rest in charging records, police accounts and prior hearings rather than a full jury presentation. Even so, the guilty plea locked in Mendoza’s responsibility for the homicide and narrowed the remaining public questions to punishment, victim-impact statements and whether the court record at sentencing adds anything new about the final hours of Prince’s life.

For now, the case stands at a final turning point: both defendants have been convicted, one is already serving life without parole, and Mendoza’s sentencing on June 5 is the next major milestone in a prosecution that began with a missing-child report and ended with lasting changes far beyond one Milwaukee courtroom.