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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Man gets 31 years for stabbing

Associated Press

SEATTLE – A man who stabbed his girlfriend to death as they rode in a car on Interstate 5 in Seattle has been sentenced to 31 years in prison.

Forty-three-year-old Christel David Murphy, of Kent, pleaded guilty in September to first-degree murder and was sentenced Friday in King County Superior Court.

He apologized in court to the family of Jane Kariuki and said he didn’t know why he did it.

The couple had been arguing Oct. 16, 2008, and he was in the back seat and she was in the front passenger seat when he put her in a neck hold and stabbed her 31 times in the neck, face and chest.

Murphy had a history of domestic violence, including assaulting Kariuki.