A now-51-year-old man has been sentenced to five years in prison after his modified guilty plea to second-degree manslaughter in the 1978 slaying of an 80-year-old Seattle-area woman.

Ronald MacDonald was tracked down by detectives in the King County sheriff's cold case unit and arrested last Sept. 22 in Reno in the strangling death of Arlene Roberts. Her body was found in her mobile home.

KOMO-TV reports ( http://is.gd/7Pg0Gd) that MacDonald's fingerprints were on file from multiple arrests over more than two decades. They came back as a match when detectives checked fingerprints collected at the slaying scene.

In a plea agreement, prosecutors had agreed to recommend that MacDonald walk free on time served. However, a King County Superior Court judge decided Wednesday to impose the maximum possible penalty.

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Information from: KOMO-TV, http://www.komotv.com/