Man convicted in 2019 murder faces between 20 years and life in prison at sentencing
A former Springfield man convicted of killing an 80-year-old woman in her near north-side duplex in early 2019 will be sentenced in Sangamon County court on Tuesday.
David Dale Smith, 58, of Lindenwood, faces between 20 years and life in prison for the murder of Donna Lea Bricker in her home in the 700 block of West Elliott Street.
Smith, who had been released from prison for aggravated battery of a senior citizen in a 1994 incident in Vermilion County, was a former neighbor of Bricker's.
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Bricker was found in her home on Jan. 6, 2019, by family members when she didn't show up for services at Third Presbyterian Church, where she was a longtime member and volunteer. An autopsy confirmed that Bricker had died from ligature strangulation.
Sangamon County First Assistant State's Attorney Derek Dion explained at Smith's trial in late June that work done at the Illinois State Police Crime Lab helped police identify Smith as the suspect. DNA results showed that a specimen on a pair of scissors used to stab Bricker in the chest matched Smith. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder.
Smith's actions, Dion said at the trial, were "exceptionally brutal and heinous."
Smith had moved to Lindenwood, an unincorporated area in northern Illinois between Rockford and Rochelle, before he was apprehended by authorities in mid-March 2019.
At age 70, Bricker's volunteer work included running a food pantry in one of Kentucky's poorest counties in the Appalachian Mountain region.
Ashlea Squires, Bricker's niece, told The State Journal-Register in 2019, that one of the women Bricker helped in Kentucky drove through a snowstorm to speak at Bricker's funeral, "a testament that people really loved her and wanted to show how they felt about her."
According to her obituary, Bricker also volunteered for Habitat for Humanity.
Tuesday's hearing will be before Circuit Court Judge John Madonia.
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Former Springfield man faces life sentence for elderly woman's murder
