A Florida man has been sentenced to life in prison for bludgeoning his mother with a hammer and then choking her to death with an alarm clock cord so he could steal her debit card to buy drugs.

Joshua Nunn, 42, told investigators that his 72-year-old mother was saying “I love you” as he was killing her inside Crestview home in January, reported Northwest Florida Daily News.

Nunn was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, grand theft auto and petit theft, State Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden announced in a press release.

Based on his extensive prior criminal record, Nunn will not be eligible for early release, prosecutors said.

Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the home of Nunn’s mother on Jan. 9 and found the woman dead on her blood-soaked bed, reported WEAR-TV.

Sheriff Eric Aden at the time described the crime scene as “horrific” and “heinous.”

According to an arrest report, the victim’s injuries were consistent with being repeatedly struck with a blunt object. The woman’s car also was missing from her property.

Nunn was arrested three hours later, after being spotted driving his slain mother’s stolen vehicle.

During a police interview, Nunn allegedly confessed to brutally killing his mother.

“Nunn says he used a hammer on the elderly victim, tried to suffocate her with a pillow, and wrapped a cord from an alarm clock around her neck to choke her because he wanted his debit card and her debit card,” a sheriff’s office press release stated.

The deadly attack came just two months after Nunn had been released from prison, where he had served 12 years on a robbery conviction — his third since 2000.

Since his release, Nunn’s mother had been in charge of his finances and was holding onto his debit card to stop him from indulging in his crack cocaine habit, according to records.