A man who has gone to trial twice for stabbing a woman and burning her body in a fire pit off Edison Highway east of Bakersfield has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. Alejandro Leon pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for a second-degree murder charge being dropped.

Leon was convicted of first degree murder in 2014, but that verdict was thrown out because of prosecutor misconduct. The jury deadlocked in his second trial.

Kelli Forsch