A jury in state district court chose a lesser sentence of manslaughter for a man who admitted beating up and strangling his sometimes girlfriend.

The jury took a little over 2½ hours to reach a verdict against Dwane Edward Fox, 49. After Fox killed 48-year-old Mychel Cleaver on Jan. 9, 2013, he dumped her body in a ditch on Friesen Road, south of Lake Charles. Her body was found the next day.

Fox admitted killing Cleaver, but defense attorneys Andy Casanave and Ralph Williams said he acted in self-defense.

Fox, who did not testify, will be sentenced Nov. 26. He was charged with second-degree murder. The jury also could have found him not guilty or guilty of negligent homicide.

“The jury had a difficult case,” Casanave said. “Clearly, this was not a cold, calculated murder. This was a difficult circumstance, and a crazy thing happened at a crazy time, and I think the jury figured that out.”

Fox initially told detectives with the Calcasieu Sheriff’s Office that he had dropped off Cleaver at a tent city near the O.D. Johnson ballfields. But after detectives told him blood was in his Harvard Street house and in his 2006 Ford Expedition, he admitted killing her and trying to cover up the crime.

After the verdict, Fox’s family and Cleaver’s family hugged in the hallway.

“I feel compassion for them as well as my family; it’s not their fault either,” said Lisa Lavergne, Cleaver’s sister. “I’m happy with the verdict; I’m happy that it’s behind me. And I miss my sister.”

Prosecutors Christy Rhodes May and Bobby Holmes said the state will seek the maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

“I’m happy with the justice. I think it’s justice in this case,” May said. “Given his age, it will be a life sentence for him. The family is happy, and that’s what’s important.”

Fox previously turned down an offer to plead guilty to manslaughter with a 40-year prison sentence, as well as an offer to plead guilty to manslaughter with sentencing left to the judge’s discretion, May said.

A former boyfriend of Cleaver’s, Donald Henry, said Cleaver had multiple personalities. After Henry’s fifth wife died, he began using crack, which Cleaver also used, he said.

“Mychel was very sweet,” Henry said. “She was nice to be around at times, but Mychel was more than one person.”

Henry said he and Cleaver discussed her different personalities, four of whom he had met: Mychel (my-shell), the dominant personality; Mickey, a promiscuous teenage girl; Mechel (mee-shell), a 6- or 7-year-old girl who loved to color; and Mikey, a male protector who only came out when the rest felt threatened.

Henry said he met Mikey, who only emerged when Cleaver was off her medication (Seroquel), on several occasions. After an occasion when Mikey pulled a knife on him, Henry would lock himself in the bedroom when she became Mikey, he said.

“That would make (Mikey) angry and he would destroy the house,” Henry said.

Rather than being angry with Cleaver, Henry said he understood she had a mental illness because his wife had almost had a mental illness.

There were a few times that Cleaver would leave and come back with bruises, he said. Cleaver would not remember what had happened.

“Mikey would challenge anybody,” Cleaver said. “He wasn’t scared of anybody.”

Henry and Cleaver were not exclusive, and it was he who introduced Cleaver and Fox, Henry said.

Henry and Cleaver stopped living together after a fight, he said. Henry had a woman over, and Cleaver and Fox showed up. Cleaver became angry and fought the other woman, Henry said.

After Henry moved to Newton, Texas, he returned to Lake Charles four or five months later and stopped by Alfred Palma Construction, where he had worked with Fox, he said. Fox told Henry that he had gotten into a fight over a lawn mower with Cleaver and another man. Fox claimed the other man sucker-punched him, Henry said.

Under questioning from Holmes, Henry said he had pushed Cleaver away before, but not hit her. Although, he said, Mikey would give way to Mechel when the police would come and she would sometimes say Henry had struck her.

Holmes also asked Henry about domestic disturbances with his late wife. Henry said those claims were not true, but part of his wife’s illness.

Fox showed up to work on Sept. 7, 2012, with a black eye and an injured ear, said Jeal Fazio, a safety officer with Alfred Palma Construction.

Fox said he got into an argument with Cleaver and another man over the possession of a lawn mower, Fazio said. Fox claimed Cleaver and her boyfriend beat him up, Fazio said.

A photo of Fox’s black eye was shown in court.

A former neighbor, Michael Mott, testified that he had once witnessed an altercation between Cleaver and her nephew.(MGNonline)