DADE CITY, Fla. (AP) - A Tampa Bay area man has been sentenced to death for fatally stabbing a woman in her home.
A Pasco County judge sentenced Derral Wayne Hodgkins on Friday. He was convicted in August 2011 of first-degree murder.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that 46-year-old Teresa Lodge was found dead in her Land O'Lakes apartment in the fall of 2006. Authorities say Hodgkins, who had known Lodge years earlier, choked and beat the woman and then stabbed her seven times and slashed her throat. Investigators found Hodgkins' DNA under Lodge's fingernails.
Hodgkins had been out of prison for about two years when he killed Lodge. He had previously served nearly 17 years for the kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old Hillsborough County girl.
