BATH (AP) -- A contractor has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for killing his estranged girlfriend and their 3-month-old son in a small western New York town.
Bryan Ashline was convicted of first-degree murder last month in the Father's Day stabbings of 25-year-old Trieste Clayton and son Xavier at her apartment in Bath on June 20, 2010.
He drew the maximum penalty at Wednesday's sentencing in Steuben County Court.
Ashline acknowledged at trial he was the killer. But he maintained he was overcome by "extreme emotional disturbance." If successful, that psychiatric defense would have resulted in a conviction on a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Ashline's girlfriend obtained an order of protection in 2009 after he was charged with assaulting her while he was drunk.
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