Accused Madison killer pleads guilty but mentally ill

• Guilty plea

Carl Ericsson, 74, is led into the courtroom Tuesday in Madison before pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the January shooting death of 73-year-old Norman Johnson. (AP photo)

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MADISON — A 74-year-old South Dakota man accused of fatally shooting his long-ago classmate in a grudge reaching back decades pleaded guilty but mentally ill on Tuesday to a second-degree murder charge.

Carl Ericsson was charged in the Jan. 31 killing of retired Madison High School teacher and track coach Norman Johnson. Johnson was shot twice in the face after answering his door at his home in Madison. Johnson’s wife, Barbara, found him lying on the floor and saw a man walking to a dark sedan that was parked outside.

An arrest affidavit suggests the incident might have been sparked by a decades-old grudge that originated when Johnson and Ericsson were students at Madison High.

Ericsson told Judge Vince Foley on Tuesday that he rang the doorbell at Johnson’s house but first asked his old classmate to verify his identity before shooting him with a .45-caliber pistol.

“I guess it was from something that happened over 50 years ago,” Ericsson said during his arraignment hearing. “It was apparently in my subconscious.”

Ericsson didn’t specify what decades-old incident sparked the grudge, and Lake County State’s Attorney Kenneth Meyer said he, too, had no idea what prompted the shooting.

“That’s why it’s beyond senseless,” Meyer said after the hearing.

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