HUNTSVILLE (AP) — An Alabama man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in his 83-year-old mother’s strangling death has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

News outlets report 59-year-old Donald Marlon Mann received the maximum sentence for the charge Thursday in Huntsville.

Mann’s attorney Michael Tewalt had asked the court to give his client probation because of a terminal liver disease. Prosecutor Paul Barnett says prison is the appropriate sentence despite the illness.

Police responding to a call about a death found Betty Scalf’s body at her home. Mann wasn’t home at the time, but police said he told investigators he strangled his mother.