Man gets life term in fellow Pa. inmate’s murder
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EBENSBURG (AP) – A Western Pennsylvania prison inmate has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole in the strangulation death of a new cellmate last year.
The (Johnstown) Tribune-Democrat says Cambria County Judge Patrick Kiniry also imposed an additional 45- to 90-month assault term Monday on 22-year-old William Cramer, calling him “a very violent person.”
Prosecutors said Cramer used a torn bedsheet to kill 28-year-old William Sherry and tried to make it look like suicide.
Cramer said Monday he believed his trial had been unfair. His attorney argued unsuccessfully against a first-degree murder conviction, saying his client acted in the heat of the moment.
Prosecutors said Cramer, who is white, disliked Sherry because he thought he’d fathered a biracial child, something authorities later said wasn’t true.