Wife killer gets 29 years

Thousands of mail-order brides arrive in the US annually

A man who murdered his mail-order bride has been sentenced to almost 29 years in prison.

Gifford King Jr strangled his wife - a woman half his age from the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan - to avoid an expensive second divorce.

I absolutely fully accept the verdict of the jury, I don't want my family affected by me

Gifford King Jr

Anastasia's body was found in a shallow grave on the Tulalip Indian Reservation in Washington State in 2000.

King, 40, of Mountlake Terrace, was convicted last month of first-degree murder and witness tampering. He was sentenced to 28 years and 11 months in prison.

"I absolutely fully accept the verdict of the jury," he said after the sentence was passed. "I don't want my family affected by me."

Anastasia King's father shook his finger at the killer and berated him for his cruelty.

"You dragged her to the grave you dug," Anatolyi Soloviev said in Russian.

"You stripped her corpse, mocking her. You saw the ring on her finger and you cut off her finger. What cruelty!

"You placed her body face down into the dirt - your beloved wife. An ordinary person cannot even imagine it."

Divorce plans

The couple had been married for two and a half years.

King had filed for divorce from Anastasia, his second mail-order bride. The court was told that his first divorce cost $55,000, and he was unwilling to pay for a second.

He killed her with the help of his 21-year-old lodger, Daniel Larson.

Larson testified that King sat on top of Anastasia King while Larson strangled her with a necktie.

Larson had already admitted second-degree murder in a plea bargain. He received a 20-year sentence.