Man given 26-year sentence for dismembering girlfriend

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced a California man to 26 years in prison for killing his girlfriend in Panama, dismembering her body with a machete and disposing of her remains in the jungle.


Brian Brimager was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in San Diego in the death of 42-year-old Yvonne Lee Baldelli.

Brimager had entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder, saying he stabbed Baldelli in the back before disposing of her remains on a Panamanian island where the couple lived for two months in 2011.

Prosecutors say Brimager withdrew money from Baldelli's account after her death and sent emails on her laptop to make friends and family members think the California woman was traveling.

A Panamanian citizen found her skeletal remains inside a backpack in 2013.