Man Gets 23 To 46 Years In Pa. Girlfriend's Murder

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 23 to 46 years in the strangulation murder of his girlfriend in eastern Pennsylvania last year.

Thirty-four-year-old Edwin Carrero II of Pottstown was sentenced Monday in Montgomery County Court.

He pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and theft in February, a year after 31-year-old Alicia Schmidt was killed in her Pottstown home.

Authorities said Schmidt's two young children were at home at the time but were unharmed.

Police said he hid her body in the basement, fled to Atlantic City and was later arrested at a Florida casino.

The (Pottstown) Mercury says Carrero apologized Monday to the victim's tearful relatives, saying he couldn't forgive himself and just "lost control."