VERNON, 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.
