HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A man has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole in the stabbing death of an elderly relative of a witness in a sexual assault case against him.
Thirty-one-year-old DaJuan Porter pleaded no contest to first-degree murder Friday in Dauphin County Court in a plea bargain that spared him a possible death sentence.
Prosecutors alleged that he broke into a Derry Township home in June 2013 and stabbed 87-year-old Joyce Roth as she slept.
He also pleaded no contest to burglary and arson and was sentenced to a consecutive 20- to 40-year term.
PennLive.com reports that Porter apologized to the victim’s relatives, said he doesn’t want to be regarded as a “monster,” and said he accepted the plea to spare them and his own family further grief.
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