Man accused of killing elderly neighbor with pickax in 2023 sentenced

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - Shown is a Philadelphia police car with flashing lights in Philadelphia, Monday, Jan. 17, 2022. The Philadelphia Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police has filed a lawsuit Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022 seeking to stop a city law banning officers from pulling over drivers for low-level offenses from going into effect saying the law illegally pre-empts existing state laws on traffic violations. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO)– The 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office says a man accused of killing his elderly neighbor with a pickax in 2023 has been sentenced.

20-year-old Brayden Pittman pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

According to investigators, in February of 2023 the then 17-year-old used a pickax to hit 87-year-old Bonnie Maddox from behind as she walked her dog on Jake Eargle Road in Little Mountain.

Her body was found in a wooded area near her driveway.

Pittman will serve his sentence in the state Department of Corrections.