- Lee Greenwalt was sentenced for killing Leah Zweidinger on New Year’s Day.
- Zweidinger had a hard life but put one foot in front of another to keep going, her friend Tiffany Witmer said Wednesday.
- Judge Chryssa Hartnett sentenced Greenwalt to life in prison with parole eligibility after 15 years.
CANTON ‒ Leah C. Zweidinger had a hard life but put one foot in front of another to keep going, her friend Tiffany Witmer told a judge on Wednesday.
The 48-year-old Akron woman had finally achieved her dream: Having her own home where she lived with her son, Witmer said during the court proceeding in which Zweidinger’s killer admitted guilt and was sent to prison.
“She didn’t even get two years in that new home of her dream,” Witmer said.
Zweidinger’s life ended Jan. 1 at the Perry Township home of Lee R. Greenwalt, who stabbed his girlfriend repeatedly for reasons that were not made clear at his plea hearing and sentencing before Stark County Common Pleas Judge Chryssa N. Hartnett.
The judge sentenced the 47-year-old Greenwalt to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years on charges of murder and felonious assault after he pleaded guilty to the offenses. The sentence is the only one allowed under state law, Hartnett said.