He said he is willing to be hated and caged like an animal if it makes Conley’s family feel better and claimed to have attempted suicide more than 100 times.

“You’ll never hate me more than I hate myself,” Keene said quietly as he stood facing the judge. “I would never intentionally hurt one of my friends.”

Assistant Attorney General Meg Elam, the prosecutor in the case, said Keene was a “narcissist” and a “devious and self-absorbed killer.” She said Keene has shown a repeated pattern of antisocial behavior, dating back to burglary and thefts when he was a teenager, and has never taken any responsibility for his actions.

“He’s too busy feeling sorry for himself,” Elam told the judge. “There is no honor in Jalique Keene. He has been committing crimes for years and hurting others in the process.”

In sentencing Keene, Murray said that Keene’s relatively young age and that he suffered significant mental and physical abuse as a young child were mitigating factors in the case. But he added the suffering Conley experienced in being raped and beaten, and Keene’s continued denial that he killed her, “significantly” outweigh those mitigating factors.

The judge noted that mere minutes after Keene was recorded on a school security camera using an outdoor spigot to wash his hands and feet, he went to Timoney’s house to retrieve his phone. He had just hidden Conley’s body, but claimed at his trial to have no memory either of hiding it or of washing himself at the spigot. But he did remember talking to Timoney and telling her that he did not know where Conley was.

“He remembered that, and it was 10 minutes later,” the judge said.

Keene’s attorneys, Jeff Toothaker and Dawn Corbett, declined to comment after the sentencing, other than Toothaker saying that Keene was worried he would get a life sentence.

Elam could not be reached for additional comment after the sentencing was over.