“Body in Suitcase”: 30 Year Sentence

A New Jersey man who killed his girlfriend and dumped her body in a suitcase in New York City has been sentenced to 30 years in state prison.

Shawn Southerland must serve the full term he received Friday, and will then be on supervised release for five years after he's freed from prison. Southerland was convicted of murder earlier this year during a non-jury trial where he represented himself.

The 50-year-old Bayonne resident killed 36-year-old Christie Neely in 2007, who worked as a telemarketer in Manhattan. Her body was found in a suitcase off the Henry Hudson Parkway in the Bronx.

Authorities traced the suitcase to a store in Bayonne, where a store employee identified Southerland as the person who bought it.

He was arrested in Philadelphia in 2008.