Man sentenced for shooting girlfriend

YOUNGSTOWN -- A 61-year-old man who fatally shot his girlfriend in their East Philadelphia Avenue home has been sent to prison for 13 years.
Edward C. Anderson was sentenced Friday by Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the death of Mary M. Thompson, 37, who was killed after a domestic dispute July 15, 2004.
The judge imposed the maximum sentence, consisting of 10 years for voluntary manslaughter and three years for a firearm specification, as recommended by Robert Bush, assistant county prosecutor. Anderson will get credit for 982 jail days served.
Anderson's jury trial on the initial murder charge ended abruptly March 21 when he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
Anderson's lawyer, Thomas Zena, asked the judge to consider Anderson's Vietnam War Army combat service, his employment at General Motors, his age and lack of a prior felony record in imposing the sentence.
The judge said he was taking those things into consideration, but noted that Anderson shot Thompson in the back.
"I'm sorry that this happened," Anderson said in his only comment during the sentencing hearing.
"God gave her to me, and he [Anderson] had no right to take her away," Thompson's mother, Mary Johnson of Warren, said of her daughter in a victim impact statement. "Parents should not have to bury their children," she added.