Kelowna

Photo: Castanet Staff

A Penticton man charged with second-degree murder in the death of an 85-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison on Friday and will not be eligible for parole until 2020.

Cory Wolf Swite was arrested for the crime in 2007 and convicted of first-degree murder by a jury of his peers, but due to procedural concerns with the original jury, he was awarded a retrial.

The retrial began earlier this month in Kelowna and Swite pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Josephson took the amount of time Swite had already served into consideration when choosing a parole date.