Man gets 12 years in prison for Norwich killing

NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) — A Norwich man will serve 12½ years in prison for stabbing a fellow city resident to death during a poker game in 2010.

Thirty-one-year-old Wendy Georges was sentenced Thursday in New London Superior Court for killing 23-year-old John Stevens Fleurimond. Georges had pleaded no contest to first-degree manslaughter, and he faces possible deportation to his native Haiti after he is released.

Prosecutors say Georges suspected Fleurimond of cheating when they were playing poker at Fleurimond's apartment in December 2010. Authorities say Fleurimond pulled a knife and slashed Georges, who later grabbed the knife and stabbed Fleurimond in the back.

Georges apologized for taking Fleurimond's life during the sentencing hearing. The Day of New London reports that Fleurimond's mother, Marie Jean Louis, cried and said she forgave Georges.

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