By pleading guilty to manslaughter, Prince Campbell Sr. avoided a mandatory death sentence that a murder conviction would have carried. The sentence was handed down Tuesday for the killing June 2003.<\/P>
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Campbell committed the crime after escaping from a center where he was undergoing treatment for cocaine addiction, authorities said. He took a 30-minute boat trip to Andros Island, where his estranged wife lived with her two children.<\/P>
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Campbell broke into his wife’s apartment and slashed her and his 4-year-old stepson, Randolph Rolle, on the arms and legs as they slept, authorities said.<\/P>
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Both were treated at a medical center, and Campbell evaded police until clinic workers caught him trying to break into the facility. The clinic staff locked him out and called police.<\/P>
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When police arrived, Campbell jumped into his van and led police on a chase to his apartment. There he rushed inside and came out with his 2-year-old son Prince Jr. in his arms, a butcher’s knife stuck in the child’s chest, authorities said.<\/P>
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Campbell refused to release the child despite police orders and did not relax his grip until he received a tranquilizer shot, authorities said.<\/P>
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Before passing sentence, Justice Anita Allen told Campbell that the case was one of the “most disturbing” that she had heard in her eight years on the bench.<\/P>
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“I sentence you to life, by that I mean the rest of your natural life,” Allen said. <\/P>
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