Sentence reduced in stepsister slaying

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - An appeals court has reduced the murder of conviction of a 31-year-old central New York man to manslaughter, saying the strangling of his 11-year-old stepsister was an act of recklessness, not depravity.

The Appellate Division in Rochester ruled Friday that Alan Jones will get a new sentence for killing Erin Maxwell in their family's squalid home in the Oswego County town of Palermo on Aug. 29, 2008.

A jury found Jones guilty of strangling the child with a rope. He was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison.

But the appeals court says Jones called 911, performed CPR and waited until medical help arrived, showing he wasn't indifferent to whether she lived or died, a key element for a second-degree murder conviction.

The court ordered Jones to be sentenced for second-degree manslaughter. That carries a maximum 15 years in prison.