Man faces 20-year term after casino slaying plea

A Philadelphia man has pleaded guilty in the stabbing death of his girlfriend in a New Jersey casino almost two years ago, prosecutors said.

Atlantic County prosecutors said 61-year-old Frankie Lane pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter in the June 2021 slaying of 57-year-old Sharon Whaley at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City.

The prosecutor’s office said Laine entered the plea as part of an agreement that includes a recommendation to the judge for a 20-year term when he is sentenced June 23. Prosecutors said he will be required to serve 85% of the sentence before being eligible for parole.

Authorities said police were called to the casino and found the victim dead in a hotel room with a sheet covering her body and a knife on top of the sheet. Lane, her boyfriend, was seen leaving the hotel with a bag later recovered from a trash can that contained a bloodstained shirt, authorities said. He was seen boarding a bus back to Philadelphia at the Atlantic City bus terminal and turned himself in to authorities days later, prosecutors said.