SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A charge against a Nebraska man has increased to first-degree murder in the strangling death of his estranged wife in Sioux City.

27-year-old Rogelio Pablo-Morales, of Hubbard, was charged Tuesday. He is accused of killing 21-year-old Margarita Morales, of South Sioux City, Nebraska, on April 19.

Pablo-Morales had been arrested on a second-degree murder charge. An attorney for the man didn’t return the newspaper’s calls seeking comment on the increased charge.

Court documents say Pablo-Morales told investigators a fight broke out when his wife told him he no longer wanted to be in a relationship. He said he wrapped his hands around her neck, and that his next memory was his wife not breathing.

First-degree murder is punishable by life in prison without parole.