Allentown Man Gets Life In Girlfriend's Slaying
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — An eastern Pennsylvania man was immediately sentenced to life in prison after a verdict rejected his self-defense claims and convicted him of first-degree murder for slashing and stabbing his girlfriend 40 times.
33-year-old Jonathan Schaffer, of Allentown, claimed 31-year-old Lauren Wolstenholme attacked him with the knife in their Allentown apartment in September 2012, and that he stabbed her only to get her off him.
But Schaffer's mother testified earlier that her son called and said he'd killed Wolstenholme, but she heard the victim in the background calling for help and exclaimed, "She's still alive!"
After a five-second pause, Donna Schaffer says her son returned to the phone and said, "She's not anymore."
A Lehigh County jury deliberated for about an hour before returning the verdict Friday evening.
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