Ashton Moores listens during the opening of his trial in Penobscot County Superior Court in Bangor on Nov. 17, 2008.

A man serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of a Bangor woman in 2007 died Thursday at the Maine State Prison, an official said.

Ashton L. Moores, 70, died around 9:57 p.m. at the Warren penitentiary, according to Maine Department of Corrections Commissioner Joseph Fitzpatrick. It was not immediately clear how Moores died.

[Murderer Ashton Moores sentenced to life in prison]

Moores served nearly 10 years of a life sentence for the killing of Christina Simonin in Bangor in 2007. He was sentenced in January of 2009.

Moores raped and tortured the 43-year-old woman, fracturing multiple bones during the sexual assault before tying up her body in her own bloodied clothes and a mattress pad and pushing her in a borrowed wheelbarrow through the streets of Bangor before dumping her body near a shed.

[Moores’ life spent mostly in prison]

He was serving a 20-year concurrent sentence for the rape at the time of his death.

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Callie Ferguson

Callie Ferguson is an investigative reporter for the Bangor Daily News. She writes about criminal justice, police and housing.