White Earth Man Gets 27 Years In Girlfriend's Fire Death

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A White Earth man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for killing his girlfriend in a house fire nearly two years ago.

Fifty-year-old Charles Jones was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul. He was convicted by a jury in March in the December 2013 murder of 35-year-old Shalonda Sioux Clark.

KFGO-AM reports Jones and Clark were huddled in the living room of their home in Ponsford, trying to keep warm from the heat of the oven. She became unconscious on the couch.

Prosecutors say Jones lit a blanket on fire and threw it on top of Clark. Jones told neighbors, who spotted the fire, that he didn't know where Clark was.

Her remains were later found among the ashes of the couch.

(© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)