Local Digest

THE DISTRICT

Man pleads guilty in Craigslist assaults

A D.C. man pleaded guilty Friday in the sexual assaults of two women he met through Craigslist, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.

Brandon B. Petty, 26, was convicted of one count of assault with intent to commit first-degree sexual abuse and one count of attempted first-degree sexual abuse while armed in Superior Court.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 28.

Prosecutors alleged that Petty attacked one victim Sept. 8, 2009, at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel and another April 21 at the Hilton Washington Hotel. He had contacted each woman through Craigslist ads for adult services, authorities said.

Both victims helped police track down Petty, the first by following him and the second by providing his cellphone number and DNA evidence and looking through police photographs, according to authorities.

-- Spencer S. Hsu

Man gets 20 years in stabbing death

An Alexandria man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to fatally stabbing a District man in 2009 during an argument over the paternity of infant twins.

Patrick Wilson, 25, pleaded guilty in D.C. Superior Court to one count of murder in May in the fatal stabbing of George Wakefield, 29. During sentencing. Wilson turned to Wakefield's family and apologized. Judge Lynn Leibovitz called the altercation "beyond senseless" and said Wilson had earlier incidents of an inability to control his temper.