ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — After 18 years, an Orange County family finally has closure from a brutal rape and murder. The prime suspect pleaded guilty Tuesday morning and will spend the rest of his life in prison for the crime.
RAW VIDEO: Emotional Sentencing In Court
"I pray that you never be set free to brutalize and murder another woman," said Betty Wright, the victim's mother.
Tearfully, the family pleaded for the strictest sentence possible for convicted murderer Dennis McCroskey.
"And I pray that Dennis McCroskey will continue to experience justice in eternity and it reflects the cruelty he showed my mother," said Jennifer Wolfinger, the victim's daughter.
Judge John Adams Sr. answered their prayers by sentencing McCroskey to life in prison. McCroskey seemed unfazed by the outcome. He was found guilty of raping and killing Lisa DaSilva in 1993, almost 18 years ago.
Deputies say DaSilva and McCroskey were arguing in an Orange County bar and, on her walk home, McCroskey attacked her. Battered and bruised, DaSilva tried to make her way home and almost made it to the front door before collapsing by a tree. The next morning, her father found her dead in the front yard.
DaSilva's grieving daughter recounted the pain she felt that day in court.
"It was that day I learned another individual could beat someone to death," Wolfinger told the court.
Her murder went unsolved for almost two decades, until McCroskey was convicted for similar crimes in Ohio. DNA evidence from that case linked him to DaSilva's rape and murder.
McCroskey will be extradited to Florida to serve his life sentence, once he's done serving 75 years for his crimes in the Midwest.
"Lisa's death has forever changed my family and left an irreplaceable void in our lives," Betty Wright told the court.
Chances are McCroskey will never serve his life sentence in Florida. The 39-year-old is only 15 years into his 75-year sentence in Ohio.
State attorney Norman Wolfinger was also there Tuesday. DaSilva's daughter is married to his son.
WFTV
