FRESNO – A Fresno County judge has sentenced a man to life in prison after prosecutors used DNA evidence to convict him of murdering a 15-year-old girl in 1974.

Superior Court Judge Gary Hoff sentenced 73-year-old Ray Dell Sims Wednesday in the murder of Elizabeth Ann Ortega of Fresno.

Ortega's body was found floating in a lake in November 1974.

Authorities tied semen on Ortega's underwear to Sims in 1996. He was charged with the murder in 2001 although his case did not go to trial for another seven years.

Ortega's mother, Mona Soriano, said in court her daughter was a good girl, and she was glad the case was over.

Sims is already serving a life sentence for the murder of a 17-year-old Fresno girl in 1977.