Black man sentenced 30 to 60 years for beating, then setting setting a World War II veteran on fire inside of his home

Detroit — Scott Monchnik recalled Friday the November night he arrived on Bentler and saw his loving childhood home burned and blackened, and blood on the floor from where his father had been beaten to death.



Monchnik said this “scene from hell” has traumatized his family and will haunt him for the rest of his life.



“His life was brutally taken from us by a monster,” Monchnik said. “The terrible sickening feeling I get thinking that my dad’s last hour on Earth was filled with horror and pain, worse than anything he went through in the war.”



The Monchnik family said they felt a sense of closure to the death of 91-year-old Paul Monchnik. Wayne Circuit Judge Michael Callahan sentenced George Steward IV, the man convicted in the brutal murder, to 30-60 years in prison.



Steward, 18, of Detroit, pleaded guilty earlier this month to second-degree murder.



Authorities say Steward beat Monchnik to death, and then doused him with gasoline before setting him on fire last November. Steward lived next door to Monchnik with his grandfather, family members say. His motive is unknown.



During Friday’s sentencing, Steward apologized to the Monchnik family and said he was “remorseful.”



“Each and every day I wish I could take it back,” he said. “No one should be able to leave this world like that. I’m sorry for the loss I caused their family, for the heartache I put in their hearts. Hopefully one day they can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”



Outside of court, Steward’s family and friends defended him.