SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse man who beat a woman to death with a 2-by-4 board in 1990 was charged with brutally beating a 78-year-old woman during a robbery on New Year's Day.

Willie McKee Jr., 42, approached the woman just after 8:30 a.m. in the 1600 block of Lodi Street. He repeatedly punched and kicked the woman before making off with with her purse and wallet, Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler said at a news conference this morning.

She suffered extensive head and facial injuries and was rushed to Upstate University Hospital, where she's currently in critical, but stable condition.

The woman's son, one of nine children, spoke to reporters following the press conference. He held a photograph of his mother. Her right eye was severely bruised and swollen and her head wrapped in blood-soaked bandages.

She was bleeding from her head and face when police arrived, Fowler said. Her son said his mother's face was repeatedly stomped on.

Her son, who chose not to be identified, said the woman is bleeding from her brain, cannot see and is fighting for her life.

"She's in very, very, very bad shape," he said.

It all started when the woman, a longtime North Side resident, walked to a neighborhood store to buy a cup of coffee, her morning routine.

At some point, McKee demanded money from her. She turned away from McKee, her son said, at which point McKee attacked her.

"She's an innocent 78-year-old lady. She's my mom," her son said.

McKee and the woman lived about a block away from each other on Pond Street, but had never met before, her son said.

In addition to being a mother of nine, she's a "bingo fanatic" and has about 100 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, a number her son said was not hyperbole.

Several neighbors witnessed the robbery and provided police with a description of the suspect, Fowler said. Armed with this description, police caught up with McKee in the 400 block of Ash Street, about two blocks away from the robbery.

The woman's family applauded police for quickly arresting McKee.

"It was awesome," her son said. "They did a very good job."

Fowler thanked the public for helping police find the suspect.

"This person viciously attacked a 78-year-old member of our community and the public didn't stand idly by and watch it happen," Fowler said. "The public did their part."

When the case against McKee is ultimately turned over to the Onondaga County District Attorney's office, Fowler suspects the assistant district attorney put in charge of the case will feel the same way he does: that McKee needs to go to jail "for a long, long long time."

"You're not going to be able to attack a member of our community, especially an elderly member of our community, and get away with it," Fowler said.

McKee, of 1015 Pond St., Apt. 2, was charged with first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and resisting arrest.

He was arraigned in City Court and sent to the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail.

McKee has an extensive criminal history, including arrests for assault, weapons possession, burglary and larceny, Sgt. Richard Helterline said. He was most recently charged with misdemeanor assault on Nov. 27. Details on that arrest were not immediately available.

McKee was 16 when he and two other men beat Cheryl Coleman to death with a wooden board inside a vacant South Salina Street house in a drugs-for-sex deal gone wrong.

McKee pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in exchange for testimony against his two co-defendants, Gregory Brown and Carlton Lewis. Both Brown and Lewis were convicted of murder sentenced to up to life in prison, where they both remain.

McKee served 18 years in prison for the crime and was released in 2008.

In 2010, he was sentenced to up to three years in prison after he was convicted of driving while intoxicated for the second time. He served about two years and was released to parole in July 2012.

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