Man Who Hired 2 To Kill Girlfriend Gets Life Without Parole

TOWSON, Md. (AP) -- A man convicted of hiring two men to kill his girlfriend so he could collect life insurance money has been sentenced to life without parole plus 30 years.

Forty-four-year-old Stephen Michael Cooke Jr. of Pasadena was sentenced Thursday in Baltimore County Circuit Court. He was convicted in June of first-degree murder, solicitation of murder and conspiracy in the death of 24-year-old Heidi Bernadzikowski.

Bernadzikowski was found with her throat cut and strangled in the couple's Dundalk home in April 2000.

Two Colorado men were also convicted in the case.

(Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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