An Allentown man charged with the murder of a Tamaqua woman, and then discarding her body on a rural road and setting it on fire, is scheduled to begin March 23 in Lehigh County Court.

Anthony Heath, 24, was originally set to go on trial today in the case.On Friday, Heath was offered a plea agreement which could have reduced the number of years he would have to spend in prison on the charges.He rejected the offer, which involved a plea of guilty but being mentally ill, and opted to take the case to trial.Heath is charged in the murder of Angela M. (Serfass) Steigerwalt on Jan. 31or Feb. 1 of this year.Her burned body was found along Flagstaff Mountain Road in Jim Thorpe at about 10:48 a.m. on Feb. 1. She had been tossed over an embankment.The body was discovered after the Jim Thorpe Fire Department was summoned to extinguish what had been reported as a brush fire.Heath is accused of taking Steigerwalt's car. He was taken into custody by police in Kinston, North Carolina on Feb. 2 when he was stopped while driving Steigerwalt's vehicle.He is being held without bail in Lehigh County Prison.Had he accepted the plea arrangement, he would have received a sentence of 28 to 56 years in prison.By opting for trial, a first degree murder conviction could potentially net Heath a life imprisonment sentence.Police said at a preliminary hearing that Heath admitted strangling Steigerwalt with an electrical cord.He has been charged with criminal homicide, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, access device fraud, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with physical evidence.The trial has been assigned to Judge Kelly L. Banach.