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Man gets 35 years for stabbing pregnant girlfriend to death

Posted at 6:02 PM, Jul 23, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-23 20:02:16-04

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) -- A man who stabbed his pregnant girlfriend to death in Pueblo has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The Pueblo Chieftain reports 57-year-old Joseph Romero was sentenced Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the January 2015 death of 25-year-old Phenia Martinez.

Investigators say Martinez's young daughters told them the couple had been fighting on Jan. 5, 2015, and that Romero had threatened to kill Martinez. Martinez's body was discovered Jan. 12, 2015, after police searched the couple's apartment.

Martinez, who was eight months pregnant, was stabbed multiple times in the upper torso and neck. She also had a cut across the front of her neck.

Romero turned himself in to police.

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