Colorado Man Gets 30 Years In Prison In 2000 Dundalk Murder
TOWSON, Md. (AP) -- A Colorado man who pleaded guilty to killing a woman in a murder-for-hire plot has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The Baltimore Sun reports a judge sentenced 36-year-old Alexander Bennett of Greeley, Colorado, to life in prison Thursday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, suspending all but 30 years.
Bennett had previously pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 24-year-old Heidi Bernadzikowski, who was found dead in her Dundalk, Maryland, home in April 2000. She had been strangled and her neck was cut.
Authorities say Bennett told detectives that Bernadzikowski's boyfriend, Stephen Michael Cooke Jr., enlisted him and Grant Lewis for the killing.
Lewis is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. Cooke also was convicted of first-degree murder and is awaiting sentencing.
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