A man from Mexico has been sentenced to 39 years in a Michigan prison for killing his girlfriend and leaving her body along a highway

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- A Mexican national who is in the U.S. illegally was sentenced Thursday to 39 years in a Michigan prison for killing his girlfriend, a crime that suddenly was thrust into the U.S. presidential race because of the man's immigration status.

"The actions I took on the night of March 22 do not define who my people are. I apologize with the utmost respect to all immigrants from all walks of life," Brandon Ortiz Vite told a judge in Grand Rapids.