• FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- A man convicted in the November stabbing deaths of his ex-girlfriend and another man in Fargo was sentenced Friday to two life terms without parole.
• David Stevens pleaded guilty in January to killing Samantha Wickenheiser, 23, of Fargo, and Ward Berg, 30, of Moorhead, Minnesota, in Wickenheiser's north Fargo apartment. Wickenheiser is the mother of Stevens' two young sons.
• The defense argued that the 35-year-old Stevens had a miserable childhood, saying he was beaten by his father and sexually assaulted by his uncle. Stevens asked for a term of life with parole, which would've made him eligible to get out in 35 years.
• Stevens, dressed in orange prison clothes and handcuffed, apologized for his actions and said he became sick after the stabbings.
• Assistant Cass County State's Attorney Tristan Van de Streek argued in a sentencing memorandum that the "gravity of the crimes" called for the maximum penalty.
• "He effectively made orphans of his own children," Van de Streek said. "He tortured Samantha and then expressed in a letter to his own mother that Samantha did not suffer enough."
• Officers responded shortly after 2 a.m. on Nov. 23 to a report that a woman said she had been stabbed. As officers were arriving on the scene, Stevens told dispatchers over the phone that he stabbed the two victims and said Wickenheiser was "out in the parking lot dead," according to court documents. The bodies of Wickenheiser and Berg were found outside the apartment.
• "Both Samantha and Ward tried to flee from the defendant, but he chased them down and killed them," Van de Streek said.
• Stevens said in a letter from prison to Berg's wife that if she wanted he would tell her what led to the killings.
• "I'll take it to my grave unless you want to know, but I'll never tell anyone else," he said.
• Police said Wickenheiser had half of an eight-inch serrated knife lodged in the left side of her head, along with numerous other wounds to her head, hands, face,

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