Associated Press
A man has been convicted of killing a Winston-Salem woman from whom he was renting a room seven years ago.
The Winston-Salem Journal reported that a Forsyth County jury deliberated 90 minutes Monday before returning a guilty verdict against 33-year-old Scott Robert Speakman.
Prosecutors say Speakman strangled 63-year-old Loyola Strader in 2006 and put her body in a car he set on fire. Speakman was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
He denied killing the woman, saying he found her dead in her home and set fire to the car in a panic. Speakman also said that a sheriff's detective falsified notes to make it appear the suspect confessed.
Assistant District Attorney Matt Breeding said Speakman beat Strader and strangled her with the cord of a kitchen fan.