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Man pleads guilty to killing friend with samurai sword

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A Massachusetts man has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 2008 death of a man found stabbed with his own samurai sword.

The Republican newspaper reports that 25-year-old Ismael Rodriguez was sentenced Tuesday to up to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to killing 45-year-old Humberto Brindis of Holyoke.

Prosecutors say Rodriguez, who was 15 at the time, broke into the apartment and was still there when Brindis came home. Rodriguez stabbed the victim in the chest with the sword.

The homicide remained unsolved until 2015, when Rodriguez’s fingerprints linked him to the scene. Rodriguez was charged as an adult with first-degree murder, but reached a deal to plead to the lesser charge.

His lawyer said his client had no run-ins with police either before or after the killing.





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