Man gets life for strangling girlfriend

BARTOW, Fla. (AP) -- An Orlando man has been sentenced to life in prison for strangling his girlfriend and burning her body on the side of a road in central Florida.

A Polk County judge sentenced 30-year-old Mourad Balzourt on Friday. He was convicted in October of first-degree murder and abuse of a dead human body.

Prosecutors say Balzourt killed 22-year-old Solymarie Roman because he was upset that she had been communicating with her ex-boyfriend.

Firefighters found the woman's charred body after responding to a brush fire in Poinciana in November 2007. An autopsy determined that Roman was asphyxiated before the fire.

Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

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