Boston (AP)  -- A jury has heard opening statements in the trial of a man charged with strangling a young Milton woman and setting her body on fire in Boston.

Rodrick Taylor is charged with first-degree murder in the April 2006 death of Dominique Samuels. Prosecutors say Taylor strangled the 19-year-old Samuels, took her body from her rooming house and set it on fire in Franklin Park in an attempt to destroy evidence linking him to the crime.

Taylor's lawyer told the jury he did not kill Samuels and has an alibi for the time when her body was burned.

Prosecutor Edmond Zabin told the jury that witnesses and forensic evidence link Taylor to Samuels' killing and the burning of her remains.

Samuels was a former captain of the Milton High School cheerleading squad.