A man convicted over a "Texas Killing Fields" death was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday in a rare trial related to the bodies of dozens of women found near Houston beginning in the 1970s.

James Dolphs Elmore Jr. was given the maximum sentence by a Galveston County jury a day after they found him guilty of manslaughter in the death of 16-year-old Laura Miller, whose body was found in the infamous area in 1986.

What became known as the "Texas Killing Fields" refers to a stretch of land along Interstate 45 southeast of Houston where the bodies of more than 30 girls and young women have been found.