A jury decided Monday that a suburban Philadelphia businessman who strangled a company intern after the man resisted a rape attempt should get life without parole. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for 43-year-old William Smithson. Smithson was convicted Friday of first-degree murder, attempted rape, kidnapping, drug and other charges. The body of 23-year-old Jason Kyle Shephard was found in Smithson's home in September 2006.

Shephard was an avid runner from Cavalier, N.D., a small town
near the Canadian border, who was studying sports marketing. He had taken a semester off from Northern State University in Aberdeen to work at Daktronics, a scoreboard manufacturer. Shephard met Smithson, a supervisor for Daktronics, when Shephard visited the Pennsylvania office on a summer 2006 business trip. He returned in September 2006 to give a product demonstration.

The defense lawyer tried to blame the crime on another man who
supplied drugs to Smithson and who lied to police about when he
left Smithson's home the night of the killing.