Thirteen-year-old Jillissa Pena waited until the end of her mother’s funeral to approach the casket.

Sherry Leigh Bradley looked “so cold and hard’’ and her complexion was gray, Pena recalled Wednesday at the sentencing hearing for the man convicted in her mother’s killing.

“This evil man came uninvited into our lives,’’ Pena, now 16, said through tears as Chhoeut Chin listened to the proceedings in Suffolk Superior Court with the assistance of an interpreter.

“For almost three years, this murder has tormented our thoughts and lives,’’ Pena said. “I live every day asking God, ‘Why my mom? Why take her from her family?’ ’’

Judge Jeffrey Locke sentenced Chin, 43, to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years for murdering Bradley, a mother of four whose lifeless body was found in an East Boston parking garage on Aug. 1, 2013.

Chin and Bradley, both Lynn residents, had once dated and had lived together, prosecutors said. The defense disputed that the pair were a couple.

A jury Monday convicted Chin of second-degree murder. Under sentencing rules, Locke could have ordered him to serve a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum term of 25 years before he could seek parole.

Prior to Bradley’s death, a prosecutor said, Chin had been convicted of violent crimes against women at least twice. In each case, Chin used threats, harassment, and violence, the prosecutor said.

“There is a disturbing pattern of violence against women, harassment, threats that this defendant has shown over a 20-year period,’’ said Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin.

Locke said he considered that history.

“I am struck by the defendant’s record and the serious violence reflected in the prior convictions that, in some ways, is of a like nature,’’ he said.

In the weeks before Bradley’s death, prosecutors said, Chin followed her around, would lie in wait for her, and contacted friends and associates to inquire about her whereabouts.

Bradley, 32, was last seen alive July 31, 2013, when she left a friend’s apartment in Lynn to buy food. She never returned.

Earlier that night, prosecutors said, Bradley and Chin had met. During the meeting, Chin gave Bradley money, presumably to buy narcotics for him, court records show.

On Aug. 1, 2013, video surveillance cameras captured Chin’s blue Mazda pull into and then depart from the parking garage where Bradley’s body was found, prosecutors said.

A medical examiner declared Bradley’s death a homicide in April 2014, ruling she died of a “compression of the neck.’’ She also had a head injury, fractured vertebra, and hemorrhages and bruising on her neck, court records show.

Officials never concluded where the killing occurred, prosecutors said.

Chin was arrested in August 2014.

Zabin asked that Chin spend at least 25 years in prison before he could seek parole.

He cited a 1992 case in which Chin was sentenced to four to six years in prison for kidnapping and assault.

In that case, Zabin said, Chin threatened the mother of his infant daughter with a gun and knife before strangling her with a belt and fleeing with the baby.

About a month after the baby was returned, Chin kidnapped the woman and took her to Bridgeport, Conn., Zabin said.

Chin shook his head as Zabin detailed the case.

Chin’s lawyer, Brian Kelley, said he believes the jury convicted his client based on speculation and mistakenly believed the defense bore the burden of proof.

“There was really no evidence that [Chin] committed this offense,’’ Kelley said.

One juror who heard the murder case attended the sentencing hearing. Joe Lawlor, 29, a consultant from Winthrop, said that, at the beginning of deliberations, some jurors wanted to acquit Chin.

The discussions were difficult at times, Lawlor said, because details about how the killing unfolded were scant.

“No one was there. We didn’t know where it happened,’’ Lawlor said. “We didn’t have enough evidence to know how [Chin] acted during the murder.’’

He said convicting Chin of second-degree murder was the right decision.

“It’s tremendously sad,’’ Lawlor said. “One heinous death has such a dark ripple effect to so many other people.’’

Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi.