Enters guilty plea
Manslaughter conviction for woman’s death in apartment
A man will serve 25 years in prison for killing his girlfriend in Cohoes./
A 24-year-old man pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree manslaughter for stabbing his girlfriend to death in their downtown Cohoes apartment earlier this year.
Andrew Lathrop agreed to serve a 25year sentence, the maximum allowed under law, for killing 31-year-old Sara Pascale in their Remsen Street apartment on the morning of March 3.
Members of both Lathrop’s and Pascale’s families, some of them crying, attended the defendant’s court appearance in the courtroom of acting Supreme Court Justice Roger Mcdonough.
Pascale, who lived at times in Peekskill, La Grange and Clifton Park, graduated from Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park in 2005, was most recently working at a Hannaford market in Clifton Park. She had attended St. Lawrence University and SUNY Adirondack. At the latter she made the dean’s list multiple times.
Lathrop faced the possibility of 25 years to life if convicted of second-degree murder. By pleading guilty to first-degree
manslaughter, Lathrop admitted he intended to cause a serious physical injury and it resulted in death.
“You caused her death by stabbing her with a knife. Is that, in fact, the case, sir?” the judge asked Lathrop.
“Yes,” the defendant replied.
Lathrop has a prior felony conviction in Erie County for criminal mischief. The defendant, who has mental health issues and is now on psychotropic medications, underwent two court-ordered psychological exams and was found mentally fit for proceed to trial.
On the day before the slaying, Lathrop wrote on his girlfriend’s Facebook page using the misspelled pseudonym Dale Dentin, the name of a character in the movie “Pineapple Express.”
“I’m sorry Sara Pascale for how hard things have been,” he wrote. “I just hope I’m not to late.”
The following morning, Pascale was found dead. Police arrested Lathrop, who was found nearby.