FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — A Florence court is debating the fate of a Senegalese man accused of murdering an American woman in her flat after they met at a nightclub.

Ashley Olsen, 35, was found dead in her apartment Jan. 9, 2016. An autopsy found that she had been strangled and suffered skull fractures.

Police arrested Cheik Tidiane Diaw a few days later after street surveillance cameras showed him walking with Olsen toward her home that night, and DNA traces were found on a cigarette butt and condom in her apartment.

Prosecutors asked the court to convict Diaw and sentence him to the maximum life in prison. Diaw told police he and Olsen, of Summer Haven, Florida, had fought but denied strangling her.

A verdict is expected later Thursday.