Man Could Serve 40 Years For Love Triangle Killing

 A western Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison in the slaying of an elderly man, a killing that authorities said stemmed from a love triangle involving the younger man's girlfriend.
 
A Fayette County jury last week convicted Jonathan Godines, 37, of Brownsville, of third-degree murder, aggravated assault and related charges in the November 2011 death of 75-year-old John Eicholtz.
 
Witnesses testified that they saw Godines pull Eicholtz from his car and kick and punch him, and a second beating that took place later on a sidewalk. Eicholtz was treated for a stroke and later died of pneumonia.
 
Timothy Eicholtz, of New Eagle, said his father raised four children and served in the Air Force.
 
"My dad was a good dad, a great dad. We had a nice life," he told the court. "What he had to go through by the beating, he didn't deserve."
 
Eicholtz said his father was a kind and generous man who used to drop empty parachutes over foreign villages so the villagers could use the material to make clothes.
 
"I don't know how he got tangled up in this mess. Apparently, he was helping someone out," Eicholtz said.
 
Godines has denied that the fight was due to jealousy and cited a traffic dispute. He testified during trial that he never meant to kill and only intended to end their dispute in a fistfight.
 
Public Defender Michael Garofalo said he will appeal the conviction.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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