Fairbanks killer gets 25 years

FAIRBANKS (AP) -- A man was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison for stabbing his cousin to death in Fairbanks in 1998.

Judge Jane Kauvar sentenced Burns Frank, 43, for a second-degree murder conviction in the death of Richard John during a drunken dispute outside a hotel room.

Frank, who had lived in Venetie and Fairbanks, claimed he had no memory of the crime but Kauvar said that did not matter.

''He's being convicted for a person's death, not for his memory of that death,'' Kauvar said. ''He's being sentenced because it was his hand that put the knife into Mr. John. And I don't think that was disputed by the (trial) evidence.''

Prosecutors requested the maximum 30-year sentence.

Frank will be eligible for parole after about 13 years.

Frank, who has complained about his public defender, said through an interpreter that he wants to appeal the conviction using a different attorney. Frank said there was no blood on his clothes and he did not remember the murder.