Man sentenced to life after second conviction in woman's slaying

CAMDEN A man who had his murder conviction overturned was sentenced again Friday to life in prison for the slaying of his estranged girlfriend, who prosecutors said he killed in front of their 2-year-old son.

Troy Whye, 42, stabbed Krystal Skinner, 23, in her Lindenwold apartment in 2008. Police found their son sitting above Skinner's head, stroking her hair, with a bloody butcher knife nearby.

Later, the son made stabbing gestures with a pen and told police: "Troy hit Mom-mom."

Whye was sentenced in 2010 for the slaying, but a three-judge Superior Court panel overturned the conviction. The panel said that a judge in Camden County should have raised the possibility that the jury consider a "passion provocation" defense.

Convicting Whye of passion provocation manslaughter would have given him a 10-year sentence instead of life.

The decision sent the case back to Camden County for retrial. Whye was found guilty again of first-degree murder in February.

Whye suggested in the most recent trial that Skinner was killed during a robbery, but prosecutors said there was no evidence of a break-in.

Skinner, an honors student at Rutgers-Camden, had broken up with Whye in the days before she was killed. They had lived together for several years before the breakup.