HONOLULU — A man convicted of murder in the 1989 death of an 81-year-old Honolulu woman must spend the rest of his life in prison.
Gerald Austin was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without possibility for parole.
A jury in February found Austin guilty of Edith Skinner’s murder and then later determined he deserves an enhanced sentence of life in prison without parole because of the victim’s age.
Skinner’s killing remained unsolved until advances in DNA technology helped match evidence found on her body. Prosecutors say Austin turned up as a match for the DNA evidence in 2011.
Austin testified that he had sex with a woman in his grandmother’s building but didn’t know whether the woman was Skinner. Austin was 29 years old at the time of the killing.