As the years went by, Stephanie Zouari didn't think her mother's killing would ever be solved.

The body of Tammy Dively was found alongside a remote Natrona County road on April 28, 1986, yet two decades before someone was punished for the crime.

"I never thought it would happen," Zouari said.

On Thursday, a judge sentenced Jeffrey Lynn Smith, who lived around the corner from Dively at the time of her death, to life behind bars.

"He needs to go away forever," Zouari said. "He doesn't belong in society."

Smith, shackled and wearing an orange jail uniform, stared ahead blankly as Judge Keith Kautz handed down the sentence in Natrona County Circuit Court.

Smith's only possibility to leave prison would be to have his sentence commuted by Wyoming's chief executive.

A jury in May convicted Smith of second-degree murder in the death of Dively, a 25-year-old single mother from Casper whose body was found along Hat Six Road. At Smith's trial, prosecutors presented evidence that he struck Dively in the head and ran over her with his truck.

Smith, 44, was interviewed by a detective a day after she died. However, it was only after DNA tests last year linked him to seminal fluid found inside Dively's body that authorities charged him with murder.

The same jury that convicted him ruled Smith was a habitual offender, meaning his murder conviction led to a mandatory life sentence.

"He has raped, he has murdered, he has stolen his way through this community ," said Natrona County District Attorney Michael Blonigen, who prosecuted the case.

Smith shook his head when asked by Kautz whether he wanted to speak prior to sentencing. His attorney, Rob Oldham, said in court that an appeal of the case is pending. He also noted that Smith has asserted his innocence throughout the proceedings.

When reached by phone after the sentencing, Oldham declined to comment on the case.

Zouari, who now lives in Philadelphia, said she was relieved the Smith was being punished.

"Who knows what else he has done in his life," she said. "I'm just glad he won't be around to hurt anybody else."

Zouari, 28, returned to Casper to testify in Smith's trial - an experience she described as surreal. She told jurors that she saw Dively walk away from their home toward an older, blue truck on the night she died. Smith drove a blue and white, late-1960s truck, according to trial testimony.

"I didn't remember most of it," she said of testifying. "I tried not to look at (Smith) because I felt I would be ill."

Despite her mother's murder, Zouari said her life has turned out well. She became a Muslim in 2001, got married two years later and now has two young boys. She's also a nursing student.

Zouari had just turned 7 when Dively died and said she only has about 30 short memories of her mother.

"I just want everyone to know that she was sweet as pie and she didn't deserve it," Zouari said.

Dively's murder is not Smith's only brush with the law.

In 1989, he was accused of breaking into the home of a 58-year-old Casper woman and raping her. He was charged with first-degree sexual assault, pleaded guilty and went to prison until 2001.

"That victim was never the same again," Blonigen said. "Her health went immediately downhill and she later died."

Smith also has convictions for burglary in 1983 and aggravated motor vehicle theft in 2006. Incarcerating him was a "crime prevention measure," said Blonigen, who also tried Smith for the 1989 sexual assault.

Ironically, Dively's was the first homicide case Blonigen ever went to the scene of.

"This one's been on my mind for a long time and were are very happy that it's come to a conclusion finally," he said.

Reach Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@casperstartribune.net.