A Marine veteran was sentenced to 26 years in federal prison on Wednesday for killing and then dismembering his girlfriend in Panama in 2011.
Brian Brimager, 40, pleaded guilty in February to stabbing to death Yvonne Baldelli in an apartment they shared in Bocas del Toro, an island off the Panamanian coast.
In the months after the killing, Brimager tried to cover up the crime by destroying evidence and impersonating Baldelli in bogus emails he sent to her family to deflect their suspicion of him and concern for her.
The motive for the killing is unclear. The couple had what U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Miller characterized as a tumultuous relationship, fueled by drugs and alcohol and marred by arguments and physical assaults by both.
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