A Utah man who beat his wife to death on a 2017 cruise in US waters will be in a federal prison for at least the next 30 years. Kenneth Manzanares, 43, was sentenced to 30 years plus five years probation Thursday for the murder of 39-year-old Kristy Manzaneres on a Princess Cruises ship near Juneau, Alaska, the BBC reports. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last year. According to court documents, two of the couple's three daughters were in the room on July 25, 2017, when the couple started arguing about Kenneth Manzaneres' behavior that evening and his wife told him she wanted a divorce. He told the girls to leave the room. After the girls heard screaming, they witnessed the attack from an adjoining balcony.
Kristy Manzaneres' father and two brothers entered the blood-splattered cabin and stopped Manzaneres as he tried to drag his wife's body to the room's balcony, prosecutors said. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, while defense attorneys called for a 7.5-year sentence, the AP reports. Defense lawyers said Manzaneres had brain abnormalities caused by sports injuries and argued that "a problematic combination of prescribed medication and alcohol resulted in an aberrant episode of violence." "No excuse can justify the savagery committed by this man, who will now spend the next three decades behind bars,” FBI agent Robert Britt said in a press release. (More murder stories.)
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