Man who killed Connecticut football player gets 18 years in prison

By the CNN Wire Staff

John Lomax III, 22, stabbed Jasper Howard in the abdomen during a fight outside a campus dance on October 18, 2009.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

John Lomax III, 22, was sentenced to 18 years for manslaughter in the first degree
He stabbed University of Connecticut football player Jasper Howard in 2009
Howard was hit in the abdomen during a fight outside a campus dance

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(CNN) -- The man who killed a University of Connecticut football player in 2009 was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison for manslaughter in the first degree, said Rockland County Deputy Clerk Tammy Fluet.

John Lomax III, 22, stabbed Jasper Howard in the abdomen during a fight outside a campus dance on October 18, 2009. The UConn cornerback died later at a hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.

More than 300 people at the dance left the building and spilled out into the street. A fight broke out between two groups, and Howard and another person were stabbed, police said after the incident.

The second victim, who was treated and released, was Brian Parker, then 19, another player on the UConn football squad, according to CNN affiliate WTNH.

Maj. Ron Blicher of the UConn Police Department said in 2009 that more than 40 investigators from his department and the Connecticut State Police conducted more than 200 interviews during the course of the investigation.

The university set up the Jasper T. Howard Endowed Scholarship to honor the slain student athlete.