A 27-year-old Texas man who shot his girlfriend and left her on the side of a southern Maine road to die has been sentenced to 29 years in prison.

Geoffrey Reese was sentenced Tuesday in York County, Maine Superior Court.

A jury found him guilty last month of elevated aggravated assault and other charges in the shooting of Tanya Garza, 33, several times in their car in May 2008 and then leaving her beside
a road in Saco.

The two had recently moved to Maine from Texas and had been staying at a motel in Old Orchard Beach.

The Journal Tribune of Biddeford reported that Garza said in a statement last month that she forgave Reese, but thought he should have the maximum sentence after leaving her on the side of the road to "die like a dog."