Man gets prison term in 2013 Pa. death

UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 291⁄2 to 67 years in the slaying of a woman whose body was recovered from a western Pennsylvania river 41⁄2 years ago.

The Herald-Standard of Uniontown reports a Fayette County judge on Tuesday sentenced 28-year-old Paul Bannasch after his no-contest plea to a charge of third-degree murder. The former Hopwood resident told the court “I’m just sorry.”

His co-defendant, 28-year-old Craig Rugg of Connellsville, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges and was sentenced to life in prison in 2015.

Prosecutors said the two met 52-year-old Margaret Kriek of Connellsville in a bar in June 2013, beat her in the train station parking lot, and then pushed her down an embankment into the Youghiogheny River.