HARTFORD — A 23-year-old Connecticut man has been sentenced for raping and fatally beating a Manchester woman before setting her body on fire in a January 2014 attack.
A Superior Court found Steven Durdek guilty in June in connection with the death of 56-year-old Sarah Kelloway. Police said at the time that he entered her Manchester apartment through a third-floor window, raped her, then beat her to death her. Police said he then used lighter fluid and set fire to the apartment to cover the crimes.
Durdek was sentenced on Tuesday to 115 years in state prison. He had faced a maximum sentence of 130 years after being convicted of murder, felony murder, first-degree burglary, first-degree sexual assault, first-degree arson and tampering with evidence.
Police have said Durdek did not know Kelloway before the attack.
Prosecutor David Zagaja said DNA evidence collected from Kelloway’s charred body and a doorknob on her Park Street apartment placed Durdek and no one else at the crime scene.
With reporting from the Associated Press.
