LANCASTER TOWNSHIP, Pa.–Prosecutors are no longer seeking the death penalty for a man accused of stabbing his wife to death inside their Lancaster Township home last year.
Carrington Joseph, 28, is expected to be tried next month for killing his wife, 27-year-old Melissa Joseph, inside their home in May 2014, prosecutors said. Carrington is charged with criminal homicide. Police said the couple’s twin infants were inside the home at the time Melissa was stabbed.
On Thursday, Joseph elected to have his case heard by a Lancaster County Judge rather than a jury in exchange for prosecutors dropping the pursuit of the death penalty, prosecutors said.
Initially prosecutors were seeking the death penalty because they claimed Joseph placed the couple’s children in danger during the attack.
His trial is scheduled for Nov. 2.