CENTENNIAL, Colo.—An Arapahoe County jury has convicted a man of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his wife after the two had argued.
Forty-one-year-old Matthew James Watkins had been charged with first-degree murder, but an Arapahoe County jury convicted him Wednesday of the lesser charge.
Watkins was arrested Jan. 21, 2008, after his wife, Cora, was attacked at their home in Aurora. The couple’s two children were home at the time.
Aurora police had said Watkins told them he killed his wife. Defense attorneys suggested Watkins was not thinking rationally when his wife was killed. They had argued he was not competent to stand trial.
Watkins faces up to 48 years in prison at a sentencing set for May 18.
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Information from: The Denver Post,
