The Sconi

A Dane County circuit judge has sentenced a local man to a mandatory life sentence after he pleaded guilty to the 2008 killing of a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student in her campus apartment.

Judge Chris Taylor imposed the sentence on David Kahl after he entered his guilty plea to first-degree homicide charges. Kahl was slated to go on trial early next year for the brutal killing of Brittany Zimmermann, described by those who knew her as a sympathetic and generous person.

“The evidence has always been clear that she was a kindhearted person and was that day,” Kahl’s attorney Ben Gonring told Fox 6 Milwaukee.

Gonring said all the violence unfolded when Kahl was going door-to-door in Zimmermann’s neighborhood trying to scam money as part of a flat tire scheme and came across his unsuspecting victim. After entering the victim’s apartment, authorities said when Kahl returned from the bathroom to find Zimmermann on the phone, he became paranoid she might be calling the police and violently attacked her.

Through it all, authorities said Kahl was high on crack cocaine and desperate for money to buy more, eventually stabbing Zimmermann at least 21 times before strangling her. He was finally brought to justice after the case languished for more than 14 years with no conviction.