TRENTON — A woman serving a life prison term for the fatal stabbing of a Trenton man was sentenced today to 30 years behind bars for another killing that occurred 20 years earlier but had gone unsolved until recently. Although Superior Court Judge Joseph Donohue in Elizabeth did not make the new sentence consecutive to her life term, Union...
Pamper Petterway of Trenton.TRENTON — A woman serving a life prison term for the fatal stabbing of a Trenton man was sentenced today to 30 years behind bars for another killing that occurred 20 years earlier but had gone unsolved until recently.
Although Superior Court Judge Joseph Donohue in Elizabeth did not make the new sentence consecutive to her life term, Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said Pamper Petterway, 51, will never get out of prison.
Efforts to find the killer of William Steele, a former toy salesman from Plainfield, yielded no arrests for 27 years until Union County investigators received new information that linked Petterway to Steele's death. Steele was fatally stabbed in his West Fifth Street home on June 3, 1982.
By the time she was implicated in Steele's slaying, Petterway had already been convicted of the 2002 death of an elderly Trenton woman, who was also stabbed to death in her home.
"Petterway will not see the outside world on our case until she is 81 and on the Mercer County case until she has served a life sentence," said Assistant Union County Prosecutor Bruce Holmes.
Romankow said evidence indicates Petterway and Steele argued about money in the moments leading up to the homicide.
She pleaded guilty to murder.
Previous coverage:
• Union prosecutor announces arrest in 1982 Plainfield murder
• Family receives solace in arrest of suspected killer 27 years later