Local News in Brief : Transient Gets 7 Years for Fatal Stabbing

Atransient who pleaded guilty to stabbing a Pacoima man to death during an argument over whether he could sleep in the man’s bed was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison.

Leslie D. Thomas, 37, pleaded guilty last month to one count of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Anthony Cornelius during a fight on April 19. San Fernando Superior Court Judge John H. Major sentenced Thomas to seven years as part of a plea bargain, Deputy Dist. Atty. Vickye Mitchell said.

According to a probation report, Cornelius came home from a party on the night of the killing to find Thomas sleeping in his bed. A friend who was with Cornelius at the time told police that two men began arguing and that Thomas stabbed Cornelius once in the chest, the report says.

Cornelius’ sister told probation officials that her brother had told Thomas the day before that he could stay at his apartment that night, the report says.

Thomas, who said he was drunk at the time of the stabbing, told probation officials he was “confused” and “upset” when Cornelius woke him up and told him to leave. He told officials he had been living with various friends since he was forced to quit his job as a teacher’s aide at a day-care center in San Fernando because of injuries he suffered during a robbery, the report says.