Plea deal in UConn stabbing death

Updated: Friday, 14 Jan 2011, 1:56 PM EST
Published : Friday, 14 Jan 2011, 1:55 PM EST

Rockville, Conn. (AP) - The man accused of fatally stabbing a University of Connecticut football player in 2009 has pleaded no contest to first-degree manslaughter.

John Lomax III, of Bloomfield, had faced a murder charge, but on Friday entered his plea to the lesser charge in Superior Court.

He faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing.

Authorities say the 22-year-old Lomax stabbed Jasper Howard, a defensive back, in the abdomen during a dispute outside a dance on campus on Oct. 18, 2009, that investigators think started over a comment one player made about a woman.

Lomax's trial was supposed to start this month.

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