NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Raymond Clark III, the lab technician who pleaded guilty to killing Yale University graduate student Annie Le in September 2009, is expected to be sentenced to 44 years in prison in Superior Court on Friday.

Several members of Le’s family are scheduled to travel from Le’s home state of California for the sentencing, Senior Assistant State’s Attorney David Strollo said Wednesday.

Le was beaten, strangled and stuffed into a wall of a Yale University research center. In March, Clark pleaded guilty to Le’s murder and a charge presented for the first time at the plea hearing — criminal attempt to commit first-degree sexual assault — suggesting for the first time a possible motive for the crime.

The guilty plea to the charge of criminal attempt to commit sexual assault was entered under the Alford doctrine, meaning that Clark did not admit guilt but conceded that there was probably enough evidence to convict him at trial. Clark previously faced charges of murder and felony murder.

The plea deal averted what was expected to be a dramatic and widely publicized trial.

Prosecutors have said the evidence against Clark was voluminous, including thousands of pages of police reports, hundreds of pieces of evidence, and more than 1,000 photographs.