Dumont Man Convicted in Slaying Schoolteacher Wife

Prosecutors say a man who fatally beat and stabbed his schoolteacher wife inside their northern New Jersey home has been convicted on murder charges.

Peter Shanley of Dumont faces life in prison after a Bergen County jury reached its verdict Wednesday. Their deliberations lasted less than six hours.

Defense lawyers had argued the 60-year-old Shanely was overwhelmed by passion provocation when he attacked Debra Shanley in April 2010 and deserved a lesser sentence. They claimed that in the months before the attack, his wife had unexpectedly joined a motorcycle club and began drifting away from him.

The couple had been married for 35 years and had two adult children.

Shanley will be sentenced March 22.

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