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South Jersey man convicted in fatal stabbing of witness

A 63-year-old South Jersey man was convicted Tuesday of murder in the December 2012 fatal stabbing of a 54-year-old Gloucester County woman who had testified against him in a murder trial.

A 63-year-old South Jersey man was convicted Tuesday of murder in the December 2012 fatal stabbing of a 54-year-old Gloucester County woman who had testified against him in a murder trial.

Richard Santiago was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and related offenses, the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office said in a news release.

Ramona Johnstone had testified against Santiago at his 2006 trial for the 2004 killing of Johnstone's boyfriend, Richard King, of Mantua. King was visiting Johnstone at her Woodbury apartment complex on South Broad Street, where Santiago also lived then, in a different unit.

Santiago was charged with murder in King's death, but the jury found him guilty of aggravated manslaughter. After being released from prison in May 2012, Santiago was staying with his sister in Camden.

On Dec. 17, 2012, Johnstone was found unconscious in her apartment - the same one where she lived in December 2004 - with multiple knife wounds. She was dead by the time she was taken to a local hospital.

- Julie Shaw