PRISON SENTENCE South Sider gets 13 years for killing his girlfriend

Stone said he doesn't remember firing the fatal shot.
YOUNGSTOWN -- A city man received a 13-year prison sentence for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend last June.
Jonathan Stone, 35, of West Delason Avenue, received a 10-year term Wednesday for voluntary manslaughter and an additional three years for using a gun to commit the crime.
Stone pleaded guilty in January after his indictment was reduced from murder to voluntary manslaughter in the death of 31-year-old Sharon May.
Stone said he doesn't remember shooting May outside his home. He was intoxicated, and they had been fighting, Stone told Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Stone said May struck him many times as they argued. He fired a gun in the air, toward his neighbor's house, to get May to leave, he said. Stone didn't dispute that he shot May, but said he can't recall firing the gun a second time.
Witnesses' account
Witnesses told a different story, Judge Krichbaum said.
They told police Stone had been pistol-whipping May, and that she was trying to get away in her car when Stone fired a gun at her. Stone then dropped the gun and went to console her, witnesses said.
Prosecuting attorneys recommended the 13-year sentence. Atty. Louis DeFabio, representing Stone, asked the judge to consider a five -to seven-year sentence on the manslaughter conviction because of Stone's minor, nonviolent criminal record.
Judge Krichbaum said the witness reports were the only facts he had to consider, and Stone had admitted his memory was impaired. The judge added that Stone received enough consideration when the murder charge was amended to voluntary manslaughter. A murder conviction carries a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years to life.