A man convicted of strangling an American Airlines employee in a South Beach apartment in 1997 was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday.
Anthony Sampson, 50, had been convicted last month on a second-degree murder charge in the May 1997 killing of Casey Sigler.
"Yeah, I made a mistake. I couldn't, I didn't have the heart, the knowledge, the comprehension to go to the police station," Sampson told the court at his sentencing hearing Tuesday.
But Judge Richard Hersch gave Sampson life behind bars.
"The judge gave the last note on my brother's song," brother Robert Sigler said.
Sampson's sentence includes an additional 85 years on armed robbery and grand theft charges.
Sampson said Sigler had picked him up on Biscayne Boulevard and the two men got into a fight after Sigler refused to give him money, the Miami Herald reported.
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Jay Kolsky, Sampson's attorney, alleged that Sigler befriended Sampson for sex.
"As much as you love your uncle, your brother and as much as he was a good son to his mother the fact is that he led two lives," Kolsky said. "He was a homosexual who cruised Biscayne Boulevard to pick up men and he chose poorly in this case."
After killing Sigler, Sampson fled to North Carolina before returning to Miami. The murder went unsolved for more than a decade until it was discovered Sampson's palm print had been left at Sigler's apartment, and his finger prints were found on Sigler's car, which Sampson had stolen, the Herald reported.
Sampson admitted to the murder in 2013, but later claimed in court it wasn't murder because it was done in the "heat of passion."
