Man gets 40 years to life in prison for fatal stabbing
A 31-year-old man convicted of killing another man involved in a bad check scheme was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison Tuesday.
District Judge Michelle Leavitt sentenced Thomas "Biggie" Morales for the fatal stabbing of Jesse Cothron, 27.
The incident occurred in 2006 at the Desert Spa Gardens apartments, near Twain Avenue and Nellis Boulevard.
A jury convicted Morales of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon in March. The jury acquitted Morales' older brother Tony, 33, who was also facing murder charges in connection with Cothron's slaying.
Both brothers had previous convictions related to robbery, according to court records.
Hope Cothron, the victim's wife, said the couple's son, who was 15 months old at the time of the slaying, now will grow up without a father.
"All his father is to him now is a picture on a hutch," she said.
