After pleading guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action, Pantaleone Salvatore Salinas, 71, was sentenced Wednesday in a Phelps County court — 25 years on each count.
The sentences will run concurrently, or together, and Salinas must serve a minimum of 21 years before he becomes eligible for parole at the age of 92.
Arrested in 2006 and originally charged with first-degree murder for the stabbing death of Renee A. Zeman, 64, a Rolla resident, Salinas accepted a plea-bargain agreement one week before he was scheduled for trial in September. The first-degree murder charge was reduced to second-degree murder, and the armed criminal action charge remained intact.
A retired security guard at Rockwell Collins, Inc. and a 45-year former resident of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Zeman ended a long-term relationship with Salinas and moved to the outskirts of Rolla shortly before she was murdered.
