Suspect admits deadly stabbing of DC jogger, gets 30 years behind bars
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A man accused of stabbing a jogger to death while she was exercising in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., last year pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Friday and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Anthony Crawford, 23, received five years' probation in addition to his jail sentence for the murder of 35-year-old Wendy Martinez, according to Fox 5 DC.
Prosecutors said Crawford stole a kitchen knife from a grocery store and attacked Martinez while she was out for an evening jog on Sept. 18, 2018. Martinez, who had gotten engaged a week earlier, was stabbed seven times in the head, neck and back.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Wendy Karina Martinez. (Martinez family via AP)
After the attack, Martinez staggered into a nearby Chinese restaurant before collapsing as patrons tried to help her. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Police have said the attack appeared to have been random. Court records show Crawford has a history of mental illness and drug use.
"The monster is not Crawford, the monster is his schizophrenia,” his lawyers said Friday.
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The very same month her daughter was murdered, Martinez’s mother, Cora, made a similar statement of forgiveness. “I want to say that I have forgiven,” the grieving mother said. “My heart has been broken in a thousand pieces, but I forgive the man because I know it wasn’t him. It was somebody else. It was evil.”