Almost a year-and-a-half after killing his wife with a hatchet, US-based Guy-anese Yetraj “James” Mangar was yesterday sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to the Times Union.
The news report said acting Schenectady County Judge Richard Sise imposed the sentence the Guyanese immigrant agreed to serve, in exchange for pleading to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter.
The report said Mangar, 61, had faced a 25-years-to-life sentence if convicted of second-degree murder. He had pleaded guilty in January.
Authorities had said the man and his wife, Jaiwanti Mangar, 56, had a history of domestic violence. On the day Jaiwanti was found dead, there were no signs of forced entry at the apartment the couple shared with their two adult sons and the sons’ wives.
Sister Satie, as the woman was known, died of a fractured skull and brain injuries from blunt force trauma.
Several days after the crime, the man’s cousin told the Times Union that Mangar told him he struck his sleeping wife with the back side of a hatchet
Mangar had wanted to return to Guyana while his wife wanted to remain in the USA.
The couple had migrated to the US in 2000.