ATHENS, Ohio -- A southeast Ohio college student has been sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole after 30 years for fatally stabbing his former girlfriend with a folding penknife.

An Athens County jury on Monday night convicted 22-year old Hocking College student Ronald Hendrickson of aggravated murder. He was accused of stabbing 21-year old Jodi Blankenship 14 times in April 2007 at the rental home they shared.

Hendrickson's attorneys have said he was stabbed first.

Hendrickson, of Dayton, was sentenced immediately after the jury announced their verdict.

Blankenship, of Burton, had graduated from Hocking College's culinary arts program and returned to the school for a degree in hotel and restaurant management.

"It's something that you never think is going to happen to your family. It just doesn't," said Blankenship's grandmother, Rae Cavanagh.

Hendrickson was studying to become a park ranger.