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Veronica Porcayo had grown up with Anna Palmer since kindergarten and, standing before a judge Friday, she was a physical reminder of the young woman her best friend might have become had her life not been cut short.
Porcayo said she and her friends had lived in fear, with a darkened view of the world as Anna's murder at the age of 10 went unsolved for more than a decade.
But on Friday, with the man accused in the 1998 slaying just a few feet away wearing shackles and a Salt Lake County Jail jumpsuit, Porcayo spoke of a restored hope.
"Now the only thing we ask is that justice be done for Anna," she said. "She may not be with us today, but she will never be forgotten."
Matthew John Breck, 32, pleaded guilty Friday to fatally stabbing the girl on the front porch of her Salt Lake City home in September 1998.
Breck lived in the Palmers' neighborhood, but prosecutors said Breck was not a suspect until 2009 when a renewed police investigation and DNA found under Anna's fingernails led to Breck, who was serving time in an Idaho prison for sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl.
In three days of testimony earlier this summer, police and witnesses recalled the grisly scene, where Anna endured five stab wounds in the throat and bled to death.
While 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton said the testimony was "exceptionally difficult" to hear, the brunt of Friday's proceedings were matter-of-fact as attorneys outlined the details of the agreement.
Breck, who had been scheduled to conclude that preliminary hearing on Friday, which would have determined whether he would stand trial for aggravated murder and aggravated sex abuse of a child, pleaded guilty to the murder charge. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors would dismiss charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and child abuse.
Atherton sentenced Breck to life without the possibility of parole, sparing him a death sentence.
"From day one, [Palmer's family] wanted to see that [Breck] could never take the innocence away from another girl," prosecutor Vincent Meister said of the plea agreement.
Breck said little in court other than answering "yes" or "no" to the judge's questions. As bailiffs took Breck away from the courtroom, the man's attorneys handed Anna's mother, Nancy Palmer, a letter of apology Breck had written.
Palmer, who sat through all but the most gruesome testimony concerning her daughter's death and has stayed mostly silent about the case for over a decade, said the sentencing was a "long day coming."
"It's good to know. Instead of thinking about it and wondering, we have some answers," she told reporters outside the courtroom. "Hopefully, we can look past the death and remember the good things."
Twitter: @aaronfalk