America's Most Wanted: Love kill from US to Bangla to India... to jail

A Bangladesh native who fled Indiana for his home country nearly 25 years ago after being charged in connection with a romantic rival's death was sentenced Monday to 40 years in prison.

Mahfuz Huq, 47, expressed remorse and cried before a packed courtroom as Steuben County Superior Court Judge William Fee handed down the maximum sentence under a plea agreement.

Huq, a naturalised US citizen, pleaded guilty in November to voluntary manslaughter in the Aug 9, 1989, fatal stabbing of 19-year-old Todd Kelley at the victim's home in Hamilton, about 30 miles (50 kilometres) north of Fort Wayne.

After the slaying, Huq left the US and lived in Bangladesh, where authorities were unable to reach him due to extradition laws.

He was arrested in India in February 2011 when he arrived in New Delhi to take part in a table tennis training camp and was returned to Indiana last July after fighting extradition.

In exchange for Huq's guilty plea, prosecutors dismissed charges of murder and intimidation as well as a six-count burglary case.

Kelley's body was found by his girlfriend, Christine Mutzfeld, who had been in a previous relationship with Huq. Court documents said cigarette butts at the murder scene indicated Huq had waited for Kelley outside the victim's home.

Huq, who was 22 at the time, was charged with murder two weeks after the slaying. At the time, Huq already was accused of threatening to kill anyone who dated his former girlfriend.

A report by an Indiana State Police technician said Kelley was first stabbed in the back and it appeared he was "taken by surprise."

The case was featured on the television programs ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ and ‘America's Most Wanted’.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.