A jury in Indiana handed down a guilty verdict last week in the case of a man who stabbed to death an openly gay college professor and writer from Philadelphia.
After 12 hours of deliberations, jurors last Thursday night convicted 27-year-old Michael Griffin of the 2009 murder of Don Belton, a Philadelphia native who taught English at University of Pennsylvania and Temple University.
Jurors rejected the defense’s attempt to convict instead on manslaughter charges because of the “sudden heat” nature of the killing.
Griffin faces a prison sentence of 45-65 years and will be sentenced May 17.
Griffin, who pleaded not guilty to the crime, stabbed Belton 22 times with a knife Dec. 27, 2009.
The ex-Marine alleged to jurors that the attack stemmed from a Christmas Day incident, in which he said Belton sexually assaulted him.
Griffin and girlfriend Jessa Greiwe invited Belton, a professor at Indiana University, to their house for Christmas dinner, and they, along with Griffin’s sister and her boyfriend, drank alcohol and smoked marijuana throughout the day, according to court testimony.
Belton, 53, spent the night at Griffin’s house, and Griffin’s girlfriend testified at trial that she awoke in the middle of the night and saw Belton giving Griffin oral sex and then anal sex. Both Griffin and his girlfriend said they were heavily intoxicated, and Griffin said he did not recall the alleged assault.
When he took the stand last week, Griffin said he went to Belton’s home two days later to confront him about the incident and they got into a verbal argument after Belton allegedly commented that Griffin didn’t resist his advances.
Griffin said he unsheathed a 10-inch knife, which he told jurors Belton attempted to grab, cutting his hand, leaving what the coroner characterized as defensive wounds. The two scuffled and Griffin proceeded to stab Belton in the abdomen and chest.
After the murder, Griffin changed clothes in his truck, dumping his blood-soaked clothes in a Dumpster, and ran several errands before returning home and confessing to his girlfriend, who called police.
During the investigation, police uncovered Belton’s journal, in which he’d written he was “very happy an individual named Michael” came into his life, along with a card containing Griffin’s contact information and directions to his house.
Belton moved to Bloomington in 2008 to take on the teaching position. He grew up in North Philadelphia and, before heading to Indiana, lived in Germantown.
From 2002-06, Belton, who wrote the novel “Almost Midnight,” served as a professor in Temple’s English Department and also worked part-time at Penn.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].