On Friday, an Anchorage Superior Court judge sentenced Victor Enrique Garcia, 24, to 40 years in prison for killing his neighbor with a baseball bat. It was the maximum sentence recommended under a plea deal.
Garcia pleaded guilty to murdering 21-year-old T.R.E.L. Zawko in January, well over a year after the murder.
Prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge in exchange for Garcia's plea to murder in the second degree.
Zawko's family and friends filled the courtroom; some offered emotional comments to the court.
In January 2013, Zawko's roommates found him dead inside his garage. Anchorage police reported that Garcia lived in the next-door unit of the Midtown duplex.
Detectives linked Garcia to the murder using DNA taken from the scene.
But it took detectives about three months to arrest Garcia, who remained free and living at the duplex until medical technicians tested blood samples from a bat, and found the DNA from the samples matched profiles for both Garcia and Zawko, a detective said at that time.
The defense said Friday Garcia has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Defense attorney Dan Lowery said his client was in the grips of an extreme episode of the mental illness when the murder happened.
Assistant District Attorney John Darnall said Garcia hadn't been taking his medication. And while the defendant has willingly taken his prescriptions while in jail, there was "no guarantee Garcia won't act out again," he said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said T.R.E.L. Zawko was killed in May 2013. He was killed in January 2013.