BATH (AP) – A Bowdoin man was sentenced Friday to 47 years in prison for killing a Brunswick teenager with the blunt end of a hatchet last year.

Olland Reese, 20, was convicted in July of the May 2002 murder of 16-year-old Cody Green.

Green’s body was found a month after her disappearance in a shallow grave behind the home where Reese was living with his mother.

Reese never admitted he killed Green and told Judge Thomas Warren on Friday that he was innocent.

“I cannot express remorse for a crime that I did not commit,” Reese told Warren, reading from a prepared statement. “But I can express regrets that Cody Green lost her life. No one deserves to die, especially at such a young age.”

More than 50 people – friends and family of both Reese and Green – filled the Sagadahoc County Courthouse for the sentencing hearing.

Members of Green’s family, who were overcome with emotion and tears, said they were satisfied with the sentence.

“We could not be more thrilled,” said Victor Coffin, Cody Green’s uncle. “I was hoping for 40 years. I thought we would have been lucky to get that. This is more than we expected.”

Reese’s mother, Trudy Bither, pleaded for a lesser sentence. She said 25 years would give her son a chance to get some of his life back. Bither remains unconvinced of her son’s guilt.

“If I thought for one minute that my son was guilty of this crime I would not be here standing before you today,” Bither said.

Andrews Campbell, Reese’s attorney, said he will appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

Evidence presented during the trial showed that Green’s blood was found on a hallway wall inside Bither’s home and on a futon mattress. Her DNA was found on the hatchet.

Campbell tried to convince jurors that someone else murdered Green and that police investigators planted the blood evidence in an attempt to frame his client.

“Mr. Reese is young. He is intelligent and he has got a future,” Campbell said, while suggesting that the judge consider a minimum sentence of 25 years. “No one can deny the suffering of the Green family or the horror of Cody’s murder, but there are many who see the possibility of redemption in this young man’s life.”