A MAN who murdered a 14-year-old girl then taunted her mother with disturbing text messages has been sentenced to 160 years in prison.

John Wilson Jr was given the maximum sentence possible, according to ABC, after he was convicted of killing Kelli O’Laughlin in her Chicago home in 2011.

During the sentencing, Judge John Hynes called a blank-faced Wilson “cold” and “calculated”.

Wilson was convicted of stabbed Kelli to death with a 20-centimetre carving knife when she walked in on him robbing her house.

A day after Kelli died, Wilson began to taunt the girl’s mother, Brenda, with text messages from the girl’s phone.

One of the texts read: “She wanted to tell you something before I killed her”.

Wilson was later arrested on DNA evidence and eyewitness testimony.

Brenda O’Laughlin spoke at his sentencing on Friday.

“I so wish that I had been the one who walked into our house that day to see that evil killer,” she said. “I cannot even begin to imagine or endure her last moments of life with that evil man. Kelli was a true innocent victim. What physical threat could she have been?”

At one point in the hearing, Wilson addressed Brenda O’Laughlin directly.

“We was in a relationship, Bren. What happened? Are you serious?” he said with a smile.

Later, when the judge asked Wilson a question, he claimed not to know who he was or why he was in court.

“I do not know why I am here and the voices told me not to talk to you,” he said.

Outside the courtroom, Kelli’s father, John, said Wilson’s sentence seemed too light.

“I’m not elated, I’m glad to be over. 160 years doesn’t seem like long enough, but it’s the maximum,” he said.