Friday, June 25, 2010

Ex-"boyfriend" sentenced to 15 years for attemped murder of woman outside mall

A man who stabbed his ex-"girlfriend" 5 times outside the Main Place Mall in downtown Buffalo, NY last year was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk Tuesday, June 22. Jeffery Pearson, 51, stabbed "girlfriend" 48 year old Jean Cox on February 25, 2009 after an argument, presumably over her new boyfriend. According to Homicide Prosecutor Thomas M. Finnerty, only the actions of two bystanders prevented the attack from becoming a murder case.

He was found guilty by the judge after a two-day trial in April. Besides attempted murder, he was convicted of aggravated criminal contempt for violating a court order of protection that the victim had obtained against him before the attack and aggravated harassment for threatening telephone calls he kept making to her. 

Pearson claimed that he "snapped," with Cox accidentally falling on his knife 5 times. The judge saw through that lie - people don't accidently fall on knives carried by others even once.

His lawyer, Louis P. Violanti, argued that the attack represented only “two minutes of [Pearson’s] life.” He also told the judge that his client, a reformed drug addict, is “an emotional man who suffers from depression and anxiety.”

Though Pearson apologized to Cox, who was in court for the sentencing, Pearson still tried to minimize responsibility, stating that the knife was intended for a suicide in front of the victim, not her attempted murder.

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