STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut man who pleaded guilty to killing a taxi driver has been sentenced to 30 years in prison by a judge who called the slaying "brutal, senseless and inexcusable."

The Stamford Advocate reports that 34-year-old Ramiro Arcos-Garcia was sentenced Wednesday during a bizarre court hearing in which he asked for a lie detector test and wondered aloud why he was in the courtroom.

Arcos-Garcia's public defender assured the judge his client understood the evidence against him when he pleaded guilty to murder in June.

Prosecutors say he stabbed 51-year-old Jackson Pierre-Louis, of Norwalk, in the neck in December 2014. His cellphone was found in Pierre-Louis' cab and surveillance video showed him fleeing the area.

Prosecutors say the motive for the killing remains unknown.