NM Wiccan follower gets 20 years for killing

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An Albuquerque woman who pleaded no contest to fatally stabbing a man with a dagger she planned to use as part of a Wiccan ritual was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday.

Angela Sanford, 31, received the maximum sentence at a hearing in Albuquerque District Court.

Sanford stabbed Joel Leyva, 52, more than a dozen times in the head, neck and stomach with a dagger used in Wiccan rituals called an athame, authorities said. It happened in early 2010 near a popular hiking trail on the eastern edge of Albuquerque.

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