ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - A jury has found a 22-year-old upstate New York man guilty of second-degree murder for beating to death his girlfriend inside her college dormitory room in 2012.
Local media report that a state Supreme Court jury reached the verdict in the case against Clayton Whittemore on Friday morning after deliberating two hours over two days. He was charged with killing 17-year-old Alexandra Kogut, a freshman at the Brockport State University near Rochester.
During the three-week trial, the defense didn’t dispute that Whittemore killed Kogut. Attorney Mark Curley said his client lost control of himself because he was in the throes of an extreme emotional disturbance and had asked jurors to convict on a charge of first-degree manslaughter, which carries a lesser penalty.
He faces a sentence of 25 years to life.
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