Garrett County Man Sentenced in Fatal Stabbing
By: Ciara Brown
Updated: January 2, 2013
OAKLAND, MD - A Garrett County man has been sentenced to life without parole for fatally stabbing a friend in an apparent dispute over the victim's girlfriend.
Court officials say Jeffrey Minnick, 47, was sentenced Friday in Garrett County Circuit Court for the first-degree murder of Timothy Lax, 24, of Oakland.
Police say Lax and his girlfriend, Jessica Baker, were found stabbed to death near some railroad tracks on May 31, 2011.
Court officials say Minnick entered Alford pleas in both cases, choosing to plead guilty not because of an admission to the crime, but acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of two murders.
However, court officials say on Friday he withdrew his plea in the Baker case, and prosecutors dropped that charge.
Minnick claims he didn't kill Baker.
Court officials say that the state isn't conceding on that point. They say the final sentence is more severe than the two life sentences, with the possibility of parole, that Minnick could have gotten.
Court officials say Jeffrey Minnick, 47, was sentenced Friday in Garrett County Circuit Court for the first-degree murder of Timothy Lax, 24, of Oakland.
Police say Lax and his girlfriend, Jessica Baker, were found stabbed to death near some railroad tracks on May 31, 2011.
Court officials say Minnick entered Alford pleas in both cases, choosing to plead guilty not because of an admission to the crime, but acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of two murders.
However, court officials say on Friday he withdrew his plea in the Baker case, and prosecutors dropped that charge.
Minnick claims he didn't kill Baker.
Court officials say that the state isn't conceding on that point. They say the final sentence is more severe than the two life sentences, with the possibility of parole, that Minnick could have gotten.
