David D. Smith in court on Tuesday and Donna D. Bricker (WCIS screenshots)
A 58-year-old man in Illinois will spend the rest of his days behind bars for brutally killing an 80-year-old woman, using an electrical cord to strangle her before stabbing her with a pair of scissors and beating her with a blunt object. Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Madonia on Tuesday ordered David D. Smith to serve life in a state correctional facility for the 2019 slaying of Donna Bricker, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to the court docket, the sentence is required to be served at 100%, meaning Smith will not be eligible for parole. Smith was also credited with 1,626 days of time already served. Judge Madonia also denied Smith's request for a new trial.
Authorities on Jan. 6, 2019, responded to a call at a residence located in the 700 block of West Elliott Street in regards to a request for a welfare check, The State Journal-Register reported. The call was placed by Bricker's family members who told the dispatcher they were worried because Bricker had not shown up for services at Third Presbyterian Church, where she regularly volunteered.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders found an elderly female — later identified as Bricker — dead inside the home, per the Journal-Register. A subsequent autopsy determined that Bricker's cause of death was ligature strangulation, but noted that she had also been beaten and stabbed.
Smith, who had been Bricker's neighbor for a time prior to her murder, was apprehended by authorities in March 2019 and charged with Bricker's murder.
Addressing Smith directly, Madonia berated the convicted murderer, emphasizing that he had previously been convicted for an almost identical type of break-in.
"You did all of this after spending decades of your life in prison for an eerily similar offense," Madonia said, according to Decatur NBC affiliate WAND. "The court does not believe that you have rehabilitative potential that merits release from prison. The court needs to impose a sentence that protects the public from you forever."
Smith in 1994 was convicted on one count of aggravated burglary and robbery after being caught breaking into the home of a 76-year-old woman, per WAND.
After reportedly apologizing to Bricker's family, Smith addressed the court and vehemently denied having a hand in her murder.
"I absolutely, positively had nothing to do with the death of Donna Bricker," he said, per Springfield ABC affiliate 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."
Dan Wright, the Sangamon County State's Attorney, also spoke to WICS after the sentencing hearing and applauded the outcome.
"We're very pleased with the sentence of the court today. Put simply, the defendant is a monster beyond any rehabilitative potential, and he received the only just sentence permitted by owner law," Wright said, adding that life behind bars was "the only just sentence permitted by Illinois law."