TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A convicted sex offender was sentenced to life in prison Friday for strangling a 13-year-old girl and dumping her body in a pond.

Prosecutors planned to seek the death penalty for David Lee Onstott, but a judge threw out a confession and no forensic evidence linked him to the death of Sarah Lunde.

A jury convicted Onstott Thursday of a lesser charge of second-degree murder.