SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — A Lindenwood man will spend the rest of his life in prison after receiving the maximum sentence from a Sangamon County circuit judge in Springfield on Tuesday.

David Smith, 58, was found guilty in June of murdering 80-year-old Donna Bricker.

The slaying occurred in January of 2019. Smith, who was Bricker’s neighbor at the time, entered her home in Springfield, strangled her with an electrical cord, stabbed her with a pair of scissors and beat her with a blunt object.

Authorities discovered Bricker’s body in her home on January 6, 2019, after receiving a request for a welfare check from a concerned family member.

Smith was arrested in Ogle County on March 14, 2019 after investigators discovered Smith was living in Lindenwood.

He was booked into the Ogle County Jail before facing trial in Sangamon County.

Smith was convicted of aggravated burglary and robbery in 1994 for breaking into a 76-year-old woman’s house and stealing from her, according to WAND.

Though Smith reportedly apologized to Bricker’s family, the convicted murderer denied being responsible for the woman’s death.

“I absolutely, positively had nothing to do with the death of Donna Bricker,” he said, according to WICS. “If you were in this courtroom and you heard the testimonies and the case that the state presented, they left a lot of questions to be answered.”