NEW YORK — A personal trainer was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend, a dancer who dreamed of Broadway but wound up working as a stripper.
Paul Cortez had been convicted of murder in February for slashing the throat of Catherine Woods in her Manhattan apartment in 2005.
"He is a murderer, deserving nothing less than life in prison," the victim's father, Jon Woods, director of the Ohio State University marching band, said before the maximum sentence was imposed.
Catherine Woods, 21, was a classically trained dancer who moved to New York from Columbus, Ohio, hoping to make it on Broadway. Instead, she wound up working in topless bars to cover her living expenses.
Cortez did not speak at his sentencing but has claimed his innocence. His lawyer said an appeal would be filed next week.
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Evidence presented at the trial included a bloody fingerprint from Cortez and diary entries in which he described being tortured by the victim's refusal to love him. Phone records also showed he called Woods repeatedly on the day she was killed, but stopped at the time of her death.
