ROCHESTER -- A Utica-area college student has pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in the beating death of his girlfriend inside her dorm room in September.
Relatives and friends of 18-year-old Alexandra Kogut and 21-year-old Clayton Whittemore filled the courtroom in Rochester Thursday morning during his arraignment in state Supreme Court.
A sheriff's office report released this month says Whittemore described killing Kogut with his fists and a curling iron while he was visiting her at the State University of New York College at Brockport.
The sheriff's report says Whittemore told an officer he and Kogut got into a shoving match and he "just snapped."
Whittemore attended Utica College. Both were from New Hartford in central New York.
Whittemore's attorney says he won't comment on statements his client made to police.
(Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.)
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