NY man who admitted stabbing diplomat’s wife to death during break-in gets 25 years to life

NY man gets 25 to life in death of envoy’s wife

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — A man who admitted fatally stabbing a U.S. diplomat’s wife while she was visiting a friend in New York’s Long Island has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Medford resident Robert Schiavo (shee-AH’-voh) pleaded guilty in March to murder and was sentenced on Monday.

Homicide detectives say Nancy McKinley was visiting a friend in Bellport in March 2009 when Schiavo broke into the friend’s home. They say he stabbed the 61-year-old McKinley with a kitchen knife after noticing a light on in her bedroom.

McKinley was married to Brunson McKinley, a longtime Department of State official who served as a U.S. ambassador to Haiti and was the U.S. humanitarian coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1995-98.

Nancy McKinley was a retired librarian. Her relatives have declined to comment after the sentencing.

Eds: APNewsNow. CORRECTS defendant’s surname to Schiavo sted Shiavo.