MURDER IN NH

Manchester, New Hampshire, USA

A Kenyan-born man with US citizenship is being held in a New Hampshire jail awaiting trial for first-degree murder in the June 1 stabbing death of his former girlfriend, an American.

The two shared custody of their four-year-old son, who, authorities believe, witnessed the attack.

Local news media, quoting police sources, reported 28-year-old Jackson Mwangi, of Manchester, N.H., stabbed Randi Ann Huntley, 25, on June 1, which happened to be Mwangi's birthday.

Prosecutors said Mwangi also drove his car over her. She died at a hospital, where she was rushed after officers found her bleeding near her home in Danville, N.H., a small town of 5,000 people about 25 miles southeast of Manchester, and 50 miles north of Boston. Mwangi was arrested several hours later.

The New Hampshire attorney general's office ruled Huntley's death a homicide after a post-mortem examination revealed she had died of several stab wounds. On Wednesday, June 2, Mwangi appeared briefly before a district court judge in nearby Exeter, N.H., and was formally charged with Huntley's killing.

Investigators have not discussed a motive for the killing. At the prosecutors' request, a judge has sealed affidavits and search and arrest warrants related to the case. A prosecutor was quoted by a local TV station saying Mwangi and Huntley were not romantically involved at the time of the killing. He said Mwangi had recently moved out of the Danville house he shared with Huntley and her mother. He declined to provide more details about the nature of the duo's more recent relationship.

The couple's son is reported to be in the care of relatives. Neither the New Hampshire State Police nor the Danville police department could provide information on whether the boy is with Mwangi's family or with Huntley's relatives.

Bail laws vary from state to state. Suspects charged with first-degree murder in New Hampshire are not eligible for bail, so Mwangi will sit in jail while he awaits the opening of his trial.

The start date for a trial has not been announced. The prosecutor said more charges may be filed against him as the investigation develops.

Trials, however, are not automatic. A crime suspect may reach a "plea deal" with prosecutors and plead guilty to the original charge or to a modified charge in order to avoid having to face a possible hostile jury or to avoid the expense and pain of a lengthy trial. A suspect may also accept a plea deal (also called a plea bargain or plea agreement) in exchange for a lesser-than-maximum sentence. Plea bargaining is controversial, but it's said that 90 percent of criminal cases in the United States are settled this way.

Under N.H. law, a person convicted of first-degree murder faces life in prison without parole. The state reserves the death penalty for "capital murder" cases involving the killing of a police officer, judge or prosecutor. New Hampshire has not executed anybody since 1939, when a storekeeper was hanged for raping and beating to death a 10-year-old boy. Only one person is on death here--a 30-year-old Afro-American man sentenced to death in 2008 for the 2006 shooting death of a Manchester police officer.

New Hampshire--a largely bucolic state which is home to about 1.3 million people and borders the Canadian province of Quebec to the north and Massachusetts to the south--ranks high in common quality-of-life measures. For example, it has the lowest crime rate in the United States, according to a 2009 study by Congressional Quarterly Press. The state reported 15 murders in 2008.