SYRACUSE (AP) -- A Syracuse man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for killing his pregnant estranged wife and removing her unborn child from her womb nearly 20 years ago.
An Onondaga County Court judge sentenced 45-year-old Johnny Rogers to the maximum penalty Friday. The Post-Standard of Syracuse reports that Rogers proclaimed his innocence, telling the judge he loved 25-year-old Michelle Thomas and didn't kill her.
Prosecutors say Thomas was seven months pregnant when she was strangled in 1991. Her body and her dead fetus were found behind a Syracuse restaurant in September 1991.
Rogers wasn't charged in the baby's death because it isn't known whether it was born alive.
Police reopened the cold case last year after getting new information. A jury convicted him of murder last month.
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