*Former Penn center Matt White*, a member of the 1979 Final Four team and winner of two Ivy League titles, was stabbed to death by his wife at his Delaware County home in Feb. 2013.
On Friday, the woman accused of stabbing her husband and former Penn basketball player Matt White was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and found to be mentally ill.
Maria Garcia-Pellon, 54, was arrested in February 2013 after stabbing White in his sleep after she allegedly found him watching child pornography. Detectives claimed that no evidence of pornography was found on White’s home computers, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
At Penn, White played starting center for the 1979 NCAA Final Four men’s basketball team. White remains first all-time in career field goal percentage and was an NBA draft pick, though he played professionally in Spain where he met his wife.
Garcia-Pellon had suffered from mental illness since 2001, her attorneys said, and experts testified that she had been diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder at the time that she murdered her husband, the Inquirer reported. She has been held without bail in Delaware County Prison, but will be moved to Norristown State Hospital as soon as possible on parole. She also received a 25 year probation sentence.
The night before the attack, White had brought Garcia-Pellon to Riddle Memorial Hospital to address her delusional behavior, but she was discharged with a follow-up psychiatric appointment, according to the Inquirer. After she stabbed her husband, Garcia-Pellon went to a friend’s house a few hours later, where she confessed her actions. The friend reported her to the police.
Garcia-Pellon was found not guilty of murder of the first and third degree, and a charge of criminal homicide was withdrawn.
White received an MBA from Wharton in 1983 and worked as a technical writer for a software company shortly before his death. His wife was a teachers aide in a Delaware school district.
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