Staff file photo / Tony Bigoms listens during jury selection for his first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse trial in the November 2012 slaying of Dana Wilkes in Judge Barry Steelman's courtroom at the city-county courts building on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The jury for the trial has been sequestered and are expected to work into the weekend to reach a verdict.A 60-year-old Chattanooga man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2012 dismemberment death of 48-year-old Dana Wilkes.
Tony Bigoms, who was sentenced Monday, could be eligible for parole after 56 years, according to Bruce Garner with the Hamilton County District Attorney's Office.
It's the second time he's been sentenced in the case.
Bigoms was previously found guilty of the murder in 2014 and sentenced to life in prison, plus four years for abusing Wilkes' corpse. The next year he asked for a new trial, with his attorneys arguing the first jury was influenced by forces outside the courtroom.
During a retrial in September, Bigoms was again found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and abuse of a corpse in Wilkes' death.
Wilkes was last seen Nov. 9, 2012. Her body - headless and handless - was found down an embankment in the 3700 block of Youngstown Road next to South Chickamauga Creek on Nov. 25 of the same year. Her head and hands were never found.