SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – A jury deliberated for several hours Wednesday and has reached a verdict in the Blake Scanlon case.

Blake Scanlon has been found guilty of first degree murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection to the death of his child’s mother. His sentencing has been scheduled for next Tuesday. The trial lasted three days and the jury spent less than a day to reach this verdict.

Closing arguments were held on Wednesday morning in the trial of a Westfield man who is accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend Alexis Avery to death back in 2019.

In January 2019, Blake Scanlon was arrested after police were called to a home on White Street in Westfield and found 20-year-old Alexis Avery dead from apparent stab wounds. The two lived together and shared a child. 

A documented police complaint stated that after he called the police, he texted his mother confessing to the crime and saying, “I’m sorry.” Scanlon included in the text message that he had found out that “Alexis” was cheating.

He pled not guilty to charges including murder, domestic assault and battery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He’s been at the Hampshire Jail and House of Correction while he waits for trial on the murder case. His defense attorney is attempting to lower Scanlon’s charge from first-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter.

Closing arguments in Blake Scanlon Trial

In a separate case, Scanlon is accused of plotting to kill a witness, and a prosecutor in the murder case beginning in 2020. He allegedly hired inmates at the jail to arrange for someone to kill them.