Windi Thomas pleaded guilty to 3rd-degree murder and faces a recommended sentence of 18-36 years. 
 
 An Erie woman accused of fatally attacking and crushing her boyfriend with her body at the couple's east Erie residence in March pleaded guilty to third-degree murder Monday. 
 
 Windi C. Thomas, 44, agreed to a recommended sentence of 18 to 36 years in state prison as part of her plea agreement with prosecutors. Her sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 21. 
 
 Erie County Judge William R. Cunningham accepted the plea shortly before 9 a.m. Assistant Erie County District Attorney Jeremy Lightner dropped charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and possession of the instrument of a crime in exchange for Thomas' plea in the death of her boyfriend, 44-year-old Keeno Butler. 
 
 The recommended sentence of 18 to 36 years would cut two to four years from the maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years for third-degree murder, an unpremeditated killing with malice. Thomas had been scheduled to face trial in the case beginning Dec. 10. 
 
 "It's a good result based upon the facts of the case," said Thomas' court-appointed lawyer, Mark Del Duca, of Pittsburgh. "I think it's fair for both sides." 
 
 Sandra Butler, the victim's sister, said she wanted to see Thomas serve more time than the agreed-upon sentence. 
 
 "I feel like she should have 40 or more," Butler said. "She deserved life." 
 
 Erie police investigators charged that Thomas killed Butler during a March 18 attack at the couple's apartment at 1019 East Ave. Thomas told investigators that she cut Butler in the hand with a folding knife struck him in the head with a table leg during a confrontation. 
 
 Thomas also said she placed her head on the couch so a portion of her body would be on Butler's head, police said. Investigators wrote in the affidavit of probable cause that Thomas weighs approximately 300 pounds and Butler weighed approximately 120 pounds. 
 
 Butler's death was ruled a homicide "caused by respiratory insufficiency secondary to blunt force trauma to the neck and thoracic compression, exacerbated by blunt force trauma to the head," according to the affidavit. 
 
 Police said Butler's body was found on the living room floor at the residence after Thomas called 911 and reported she had killed an individual. 
 
 Thomas will remain in the Erie County Prison without bond while she awaits sentencing. 
 
 Sandra Butler said her family is still struggling to cope with her brother's death. 
 
 "My mother, she calls for him every night," Butler said. 
 
 Madeleine O'Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNoneill. ||||| Brad Lee Davis is pictured in this booking photo courtesy of Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office. 
 
 OKLAHOMA CITY An Oklahoma man was sentenced late on Thursday to 30 years in prison for asphyxiating his stepfather with an "atomic wedgie" in December 2013. 
 
 Brad Lee Davis, 35, of McLoud, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in May in the death of his stepfather. Pottawatomie County District Judge John G. Canavan Jr. rejected Davis' plea for a second chance. 
 
 Davis said he knocked down his stepfather, Denver Lee St. Clair, 58, and pulled the elastic band of underwear over his head and around his neck. 
 
 This left ligature marks on the victim, according to police. The medical examiner stated the cause of death as blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. 
 
 Davis and St. Clair had been drinking together the night of the incident and began fighting when Davis claimed St. Clair began speaking ill about Davis' mother, who is St. Clair's wife. 
 
 But Davis had never intended to kill St. Clair, said Davis' attorney Bob Wyatt. 
 
 Davis was initially charged with first-degree murder in January 2014, and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in May. 
 
 (Editing by Suzannah Gonzales and G Crosse) ||||| A Toronto man has admitted in court that he killed his mother and two of his brothers out of fear of losing his fiancée three weeks before their wedding. Brett Ryan, 36, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of his oldest brother, Christopher, and two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of his mother, Susan, and his younger brother, Alexander. He also pleaded guilty to attempting to murder his older brother Leigh. 
 
 Brett Ryan has been sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole for 25 years. ( Facebook ) 
 
 He was sentenced to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole for 25 years. Ryan’s guilty plea Friday put an end to the mystery of why a man on the verge of his wedding day killed three family members with crossbow bolts at their family home in Scarborough on Aug. 25, 2016. According to an agreed statement of facts submitted to court, Ryan planned to kill his mother, 66, out of fear that she would expose the lies he had told his fiancée, and that his fiancée would then call off the wedding. 
 
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 Back in 2009, Ryan pleaded guilty to committing eight bank robberies. He was sentenced to five years in prison but, due to pretrial custody, served only three years and nine months. In June 2016, Ryan got a job at an IT company, but before he could start he was fired after his employer found out he had a criminal record. Days before the murders took place, Ryan admitted to his mother that he didn’t have a job and that he was lying about it to his fiancée, telling her he was working from home while he stayed inside their Queens Quay condo throughout the summer. According to the statement of facts, Susan Ryan told her son to admit the truth to his fiancée and that if he did so, she would continue to financially support him for a short time. However, Ryan was worried that his fiancée would break off the relationship if she found out. As part of his plan, Ryan placed a crossbow in the garage of their family home on 10 Lawndale Rd. Then he set up electronic devices in the apartment he shared with his fiancée. The devices, a laptop and an iPad and an iPhone, were setup to be activated to create an internet footprint that would serve as an alibi. 
 
 Police later said that they were never activated. On Aug. 25, 2016, Ryan arrived at the family home before 1 p.m. to confront his mother. 
 
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 According to the statement of facts, Ryan only intended to confront his mother about the threats of exposing him and to convince her to continue supporting him financially until the wedding and until he got a job. However, the argument between the two quickly became heated. Susan called her son Christopher, 42, to come and help her. During the argument, Ryan retrieved the crossbow and crossbow bolts from the garage. Susan followed him to the garage. As the argument continued, Ryan stabbed his mother with a crossbow bolt and strangled her to death using a yellow nylon rope. When Christopher arrived, Ryan shot him in the back of his neck using the crossbow. He moved their bodies into the garage and hid them under a tarp. As Ryan exited the garage, he was confronted by Alexander, 29, who had arrived at the house. As the brothers fought, Ryan fatally stabbed Alexander with a crossbow bolt. Leigh, 38, who was at home in his bedroom during the altercation, came outside to see what was happening. After seeing Ryan standing over Alexander’s body, Leigh ran back inside the house and called for help. Ryan followed Leigh into the house, where he assaulted Leigh in an attempt to stop him from calling police. After managing to escape, Leigh ran to a home across the street, where the residents called 911. Police arrived at the scene around 1:03 p.m. They found Ryan standing near the steps of the home covered in blood. Ryan told police where his mother and three siblings were. He was later charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. Autopsy reports say Susan died of ligature strangulation, while one of the brothers, Christopher, died from a perforating trauma of head and neck caused by a crossbow bolt and the other brother, Alexander, died from trauma of the neck by a crossbow bolt. On top of the life sentence for first-degree murder, Ryan was sentenced to life in prison in the second-degree murders of his mother and his brother Alexander, and given a 10-year sentence for the attempted murder of his brother Leigh. The sentences will run concurrently. With files from Star staff
– A 300-pound woman in Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty to murdering her boyfriend by stabbing him, hitting in the head with a table leg, and finally crushing the 120-pound man with her own weight. Windi Thomas, 44, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the March 18 death of Keeno Butler in exchange for a recommended sentence of 18 to 36 years in state prison, the Erie Times-News reports. Police say Thomas admitted crushing Butler after a fight at their Erie residence. She told them she positioned herself so that some of her weight would be on his head. The death was ruled a homicide "caused by respiratory insufficiency secondary to blunt force trauma to the neck and thoracic compression, exacerbated by blunt force trauma to the head," court papers state. Sandra Butler, the victim's sister, says Thomas should have gotten life. "My mother, she calls for him every night," she says. Thomas, who had been scheduled to go on trial next week, will be sentenced Dec. 21, the AP reports. (A Fitbit led to this man's arrest after he claimed an obese intruder killed his wife.)