CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - A southern New Jersey man has been convicted for the second time of killing his ex-girlfriend and leaving their young son alone with her body.
Camden County prosecutors say 39-year-old Troy Whye of Lindenwold was convicted Wednesday of murder and child endangerment charges in the March 2008 stabbing death of 22-year-old Krystal Skinner. He faces a lengthy prison term when he’s sentenced on April 11.
Whye initially was convicted of murder in 2010. But a state appellate court ruled last April that he deserved a new trial because the jury wasn’t allowed to consider that he had committed a lesser offense.
Whye, who represented himself at the 2010 trial, wanted jurors to consider that he was guilty of passion-provocation manslaughter. He asked the judge to include that possibility in his jury instructions, but the judge declined.
Prosecutors say Skinner was trying to end her relationship with Whye when she was stabbed about 30 times in the hallway of her Lindenwold apartment. They said the couple’s 2-year-old son, John, was present at the time of the killing and was left with the body of his mother.
The toddler was found by Whye’s relatives and police, sitting beside his mother’s body and stroking her hair.
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