SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse man, twice-convicted of killing his girlfriend, will spend 25 years to life behind bars.

Craig Owens was sentenced Friday in the death of Latiesha Hayes.

Prosecutors say he strangled and beat the 18-year-old to death back on Christmas Eve of 2011 inside her Steuben Street apartment.

Owens was 38 years old at the time.  He was convicted of murder and jailed up until 2016, when an appeals court granted him a new trial. 

The prosecution says Owens may not have admitted to the crime, but it is clear to them that he was responsible.

"You know the first trial came back based on a decision that had to do with a jury note, but the court made clear that it had nothing to do with the evidence in this case.  And the jury did the right thing again, and the judge did the right thing by giving him the maximum,” said Onondaga County Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Cali.

"The judge sentenced him to what he was sentenced to the first time.  I had hoped that he would have received something a little bit different given the mitigating factors that I hoped I had raised during the course of the trial," said Nicholas Demartino, the defense attorney.

Owens did speak at his sentencing, proclaiming his innocence. He called the prosecution malicious and even questioned the judge after the 25 years to life sentence was handed down.