Man convicted of murdering girlfriend with fists, curling iron

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - A New York man who told police he "just snapped" and killed his girlfriend with his fists and a curling iron while visiting her college dorm has been found guilty of murder.

The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester reports that a jury on Friday found 22-year-old Clayton Whittemore guilty of second-degree murder in Monroe County Court in Rochester.

Prosecutors said Whittemore killed 18-year-old Alexandra Kogut in her dorm room in September 2012 at the State University of New York College at Brockport, 15 miles west of Rochester. Both are from New Hartford.

According to the paper, Whittemore was calm and emotionless in the courtroom as the unanimous verdict was read. Jurors rejected a defense plea to convict the defendant on a lesser first-degree manslaughter charge and determined that his childhood of severe abuse at the hands of his father was not a mitigating factor in the murder.

Whittemore was enrolled at Utica College when the former high school swimming star was slain. He could face 25 years to life in prison at his sentencing July 16.