Ex-Pa. athlete gets 9-25 years in fatal after-school stabbing

READING, Pa. (AP) — A former high school basketball standout will spend at least nine years in prison for killing his girlfriend’s stepfather on the way home from school.

A defense lawyer says 19-year-old Anthony Clay-Rappaselli was leaving Reading High School last year when he encountered 33-year-old Robert Bell and the two men fought.

Authorities say Clay-Rappaselli had two children with Bell’s stepdaughter.

Defense lawyer James Polyak says the two men frequently argued and Bell had threatened the teen in the past.

Clay-Rappaselli pleaded guilty today to third-degree murder in the fatal stabbing and was sentenced to nine to 25 years in prison.

Polyak says the stepdaughter and Reading High School basketball coach Rick Perez testified on his client’s behalf.