Managua, Nicaragua (AP) -- A Nicaraguan judge sentenced a Nashville man and a Nicaraguan man to 30 years each in prison Wednesday for the killing of the Tennessean's Nicaraguan girlfriend.

Lawyers for Eric Volz of Nashville and co-defendant Julio Chamorro said they would appeal the sentences and guilty verdicts.

The woman was found raped and strangled November 21st in a clothing store she had owned in Rivas.

Volz's family members and friends have created a web site proclaiming Volz's innocence, saying he was in Managua at the time of the killing.

Volz has lived in Nicaragua for two years, where he publishes a bilingual magazine.

Neither man was present at the sentencing hearing at a court in the city of Rivas, about 60 miles south of the capital of Managua.

Both men would serve any sentence at a prison in Granada, 25 miles east of Managua.

Copyright 2007 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.