A Lehigh County jury has convicted an Allentown man of all charges in the brutal death of a Tamaqua woman.

The jury deliberated five and a half hours before returning the verdict against Anthony Darrell Heath of Allentown.

Angela Steigerwalt, 35, was strangled in his apartment, after she finished her 3-11 p.m. shift at Kraft Foods. Police said she was killed around midnight on Jan. 31, 2014.

After the verdict was read, her husband Gary doubled over, sobbing in the courtroom.

Family members smiled through tears as they left the courtroom.

Heath, who defended himself, gave several versions of what happened that night when he testified on the fourth day of the trial. The trial began last Wednesday.

After Steigerwalt died, Heath shopped at the Trexlertown Walmart for a plastic tote, lighter fluid and a lighter, for which he paid cash.

He used Steigerwalt's credit card to buy men's clothes and a watch and gloves. He bought the gloves "because my hands were slippery."

Police say he then took the body to Jim Thorpe to dispose of it, to try to "set up" her husband for the murder. Heath had suggested to police that Steigerwalt's husband was abusive.

After taking Steigerwalt's body, bound with wire in the tote, to Flagstaff Road in Jim Thorpe at around dawn Feb. 1 and burning it, he fled in her car to North Carolina.

A Walmart bag with the receipt inside was found on Steigerwalt's charred remains.

Dental records identified Steigerwalt, and the receipt linked Heath to her killing.

When Steigerwalt's husband, Gary, reported the car stolen after being told of his wife's death, police used the car's OnStar system to track it. Heath was caught the next day.

Police said he confessed to the killing on the ride back to Pennsylvania.

Heath was charged with homicide, theft by unlawful taking or disposition, receiving stolen property, access device fraud, abuse of a corpse and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

He will be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. July 29.

For the full report, see Wednesday's versions of the Times News