Editor Sentenced For Murder Attempt

A former newspaper editor and reporter was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday for trying to kill the husband of his lover - a woman he had profiled in an award-winning story.

Michael Frazier, 34, received the maximum sentence for the 1994 knife attack on a sleeping John “Rob” Whedbee.

The former lifestyles editor at The Oak Ridger was tried on attempted-murder charges and convicted Sept. 16 of the lesser offense of attempted manslaughter.

Frazier met Mrs. Whedbee at church, where he was the organist and she was in the choir. They became close when he profiled her and her husband in a 1993 Mother’s Day story about their struggle to raise a daughter with Down syndrome.

Mrs. Whedbee, who allegedly stood by with a baseball bat during the attack, goes on trial April 1.