Man Facing 30 To 60 Years In Brackenridge Homicide

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PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh-area man has been sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison in the stabbing death of a neighbor last year.

Twenty-six-year-old Justin Bartlett pleaded guilty Monday to third-degree murder and burglary in the slaying of 63-year-old Linda McGinnis.

McGinnis was found dead in her Brackenridge home Dec. 31 with a chop wound to her head and a stab wound to her neck.

Allegheny County authorities said Bartlett told detectives that he didn't mean to kill McGinnis but wanted her car so he could flee to avoid prosecution in an unrelated assault case.

After the slaying, investigators tracked his car to a West Virginia grocery store. They said he fled on foot but was arrested elsewhere in the state two days later.

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