Bed-Stuy Man Gets 20 Years For Stabbing Girlfriend 20 Times: DA

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN -- Anthony Bradford told the paramedics who found him drenched in someone else's blood one hot July night in 2017 that he'd done "a really bad thing" and was “going to jail for a long time,” prosecutors said.

Bradford's prediction was vindicated Tuesday, said prosecutors, when the Bed-Stuy man was sentenced to 20 years in prison; one year for every time the he stabbed his girlfriend to death.

Bradford, 55, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Laverne Spencer, 55, inside her home on Gates and Marcy avenues on July 2, 2017, prosecutors and police said.

The couple had returned home from an Independence Day barbecue, where Bradford had gotten into a brawl, when he pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed Spencer in the chest, arms and legs, according to prosecutors and police.

Emergency responders found Spencer lying dead in a pool of blood, said prosecutors. Bradford's clothes were drenched in blood and there were cuts on his hands when he returned to his Gates Avenue home at 11:30 p.m.

His family called emergency responders and that's when Bradford said he feared for his freedom, according to prosecutors.

Bradford was arrested the day after the attack, pleaded guilty in February and sentenced to 20 years in Brooklyn Criminal Court Monday, prosecutors said.

“With today’s sentence, this defendant has been held accountable," said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. "I hope this defendant’s guilty plea and sentence bring some measure of solace to the victim’s daughter, family and friends.”