GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) - A jury has found a North Carolina man guilty in the 2015 stabbing death of an autistic man.
Local news outlets report 24-year-old Michael O’Neal of Greenville was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Steven Joseph Rouse. Jurors took nearly three hours over two days before returning their verdict.
O’Neal, initially charged with first-degree murder, was sentenced to between 25 and 31 years in prison.
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According to police, Rouse was stabbed multiple times during an altercation near an apartment complex on Oct. 19, 2015. Authorities say O’Neal and another man chased Rouse through a field before he was stabbed, after which Rouse collapsed near a loading dock of a grocery store. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The second man also faces trial.
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