A man from Utah accused of raping and killing a six-year-old girl in 2012 has reportedly accepted a plea deal and been sentenced to 65 years to life in prison, according to reports.

The man, identified as 47-year-old Terry Lee Black, was reportedly sentenced on Thursday after he entered an Alford plea deal to aggravated murder, child rape, and child kidnapping, in the killing of six-year-old Sierra Newbold, according to the Daily Mail. An Alford plea suggests that even though the defendant denies guilt of the crime, they acknowledge that the prosecutors have enough evidence of a conviction. 

Reports state that the young girl was abducted from her bedroom and then beaten, strangled and thrown into a canal to die. She reportedly drowned in June 2012. According to the reports, Black met the girl in a church as he and the girl's West Jordan family used to attend the same institution. The accused also used to live near the family's house.

Investigators reported that Black took Sierra from her home entering through an unlocked sliding glass door. The field and canal where the body was left were just feet from Black's apartment just off 2200 West. Sierra's body was found the next morning during a frantic search by the Newbold family.

Judge L. Douglas Hogan, in a ruling on Thursday, sentenced Black to imprisonment after he determined that the accused was competent to stand trial, according to reports.

Prosecutors in the case said that they decided to enter into the plea agreement in efforts to prevent any further delays or any other appeals to Black's convictions. 

The victim's mother, Kathy Newbold, released a statement during the trial, saying: "I will be at every parole hearing to make sure my daughter has a voice, and that Mr. Black is not paroled."

Her father, Brad Newbold, said: "Our family has never and will never be the same... there is such a hole in my heart."

The six-year-old girl's two sisters also read their statements during the trial. Reports state that prosecutor Matthew Janzen spoke on behalf of a younger child in the family affected by the death of their sibling.