NYC hotel housekeeping head gets prison in killing

NEW YORK (AP) — A former housekeeping manager at a high-end Manhattan hotel has been sentenced to 23 years to life in prison for murdering a woman who lived in the building.

Derrick Praileau apologized in a soft voice as he was sentenced Friday. He pleaded guilty last month to strangling and trying to rape investment adviser Andree Bejjani in September 2009. She was known as Sara.

Praileau broke into her apartment at the Jumeriah Essex House and attacked her as she slept. Praileau has said he held a knife to Bejjani and strangled her when she resisted his sexual assault. The 31-year-old Praileau told authorities he was drunk and high on cocaine.

Nada Bejjani told a court Friday that no one deserves “to be butchered” as her sister was.