ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Jury selection has begun for the trial of an eastern Pennsylvania man accused of having strangled his girlfriend and burned her body.

Twenty-six-year-old Anthony Heath is representing himself in Lehigh County on homicide, abuse of a corpse and related counts.

Firefighters in Carbon County found the body of 35-year-old Angela Steigerwalt of Tamaqua in February 2014 while dousing a brushfire on a road in a wooded area.

Authorities allege that Heath said he killed the victim with a television set electrical cord because he thought she was reneging on a promise to take him to a custody hearing.

In November, he turned down an offer to plead guilty but mentally ill to third-degree murder and related counts for a sentence of 28 to 56 years in a state prison.