EPHRATA — More than a year and a half after William M. Creek beat his girlfriend to death in a Moses Lake parking lot, he admitted to the crime.

Creek, 49, Moses Lake, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree in Grant County Superior Court, stemming from the March 2008 death of Elizabeth Bouvier, according to the Grant County Superior Court Clerk’s Office.

The man started attacking the woman in the parking lot of the Moses Lake Walmart, after a clerk asked him for the receipt for propane. When Creek got into his pickup, the clerk spotted him punching Bouvier in the leg three or four times, according to a Moses Lake police report. Creek drove away in the blue Ford extended cab truck.

Then he pulled into a business parking lot on Maiers Road. Witnesses spotted Creek beating up the woman and trying to push her out of the truck. When he pushed her out of the truck, she beat on the window to get back inside and collapsed, according to the police report. Then he got out of the vehicle and tried picking up the woman, yelling at her to get up as he dragged her back to the truck. Then he dropped her, ran to the nearby business, telling them to call an ambulance.

When police arrived on the scene, they found Bouvier lying on the ground. She was taken to Samaritan Healthcare and then airlifted her to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane where she died. Samaritan staff told police she suffered a skull fracture and a hematoma on the right side of her brain.

The victim’s family explained to the police Creek “exhibited a pattern of control and abuse over the victim prior to her death. This included moving around to keep her isolated,” according to the police report.

Grant County Prosecutor Angus Lee said the sentencing range on the case would be 58 to 76 months, with the prosecutor recommending a 72 month sentence. The sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 16.