BATON ROUGE - Police have arrested a 63-year-old man in the killing of a woman at their home, allegedly after an argument Saturday.

Police found Cynthia Gaudet, 55, dead inside her trailer at 6061 Plank Road Monday morning. She had been beaten with a blunt object and had a shopping bag wrapped around her face. Her body was wrapped in a bedspread, according to police reports.

A friend of Willie Joseph III had contacted police to say that Joseph committed a crime and wanted to surrender to authorities, his arrest affidavit says.

The police account of Joseph's statement to detectives says he told them he and Gaudet had been smoking crack all evening and got into an argument. Gaudet grabbed a hammer, and Joseph said he took it away from her. T

he argument escalated, he told police, and he "lost it" and hit her several times in the head with the hammer. He said he then used the plastic bag over her face to "finish her off." He had some more crack and then left the trailer, got in touch with his friend and revealed what had happened, police records say.

Joseph was booked with second-degree murder.

Police said Joseph was recently released from prison after serving 26 years for a rape conviction.