A 21-year-old Medford man has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in the fatal stabbing of the wife of a State Department diplomat in Bellport last March.
Suffolk County prosecutors say Robert Schiavo entered the guilty plea on Wednesday in Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead. He faces a prison term of 25 years to life.
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Homicide detectives said Nancy McKinley was visiting a friend’s Liesurely Lane home when Schiavo broke in on March 8, 2009. Schiavo told police he picked up a kitchen knife after noticing a light on in her bedroom and poked McKinley, who awoke and started screaming, according to prosecutors. It was then, Schiavo said, that he “panicked and freaked out” and stabbed the victim repeatedly.
McKinley, 61, was the wife of Brunson McKinley, a longtime State Department official who served as a U.S. ambassador to Haiti. He also was the U.S. humanitarian coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1995-1998.
McKinley, a retired librararian, was taken to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center where she died.
Schiavo will be sentenced before Judge Robert Doyle on April 19.
