SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A man linked through DNA evidence to the rape and murder of a Rio Linda girl was sentenced in a Sacramento courtroom Friday morning.

Terri Pata, 13, was kidnapped, raped and stabbed to death 30 years ago. She was a student at Rio Linda Junior High School and disappeared while walking home from school.

Last year, a DNA hit linked 58-year-old Herman Lee Hobbs to Pata's murder. Hobbs was already serving time for another rape.

He pleaded no contest to the charges in the Pata case and was sentenced Friday to life in prison.

Prior to the sentencing, Pata's brother read a letter from their mother.

"Teri did not deserve to spend her last moments on earth being frightened and abused, Herman," Theodore Pata read.

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Hobbs made no attempt at eye contact as other members of the victim's family spoke, but Judge Steve White told Hobbs to look him straight in the eye and think about his victims.

Authorities said the Pata case is just one of many unsolved case involving young girls who disappeared in the same area during the same period of time.

According to the state Attorney General's Office, California has one of the largest working DNA data banks in the country. It processes more than 200,000 DNA samples from convicted felons and then compares them to old, unsolved cases.

The lab averages about one cold-case hit each day.