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Alan Lee Marx told the judge multiple times on Friday that he was sorry.
Marx also said he wished he could have changed what happened to Ward "Hank" Woolverton, on March 20, 1997.
"I've wished over and over that I could take his place," Marx said.
Marx beat the 77-year-old Woolverton to death with a brick then robbed him, according to a confession he gave police.
On Friday, 3rd District Judge Deno Himonas sentenced Marx to one to 15 years in prison for pleading guilty to second-degree felony manslaughter.
Marx could, in theory, serve more time for pleading no contest to aggravated robbery. For that charge, a first-degree felony, Himonas sentenced Marx to five years to life in prison.
The sentences will run concurrently. Marx, 62, will receive credit for three years and three months he has served in jail since Salt Lake City police detectives cracked the case.
No suspects were identified immediately after the homicide. But in 2010, Salt Lake City detectives reopened the case, and tested the DNA on a blood-soaked men's western-style shirt that was found near the crime scene near 1000 S. 300 West.
The DNA on the shirt matched Marx's, Detective Michael Hardin testified at an April 2012 preliminary hearing.
Officers twice went to Hawaii, where Marx lived, to question him. Initially, he said he didn't know that Woolverton had died. But the second time he was interviewed, he confessed to the crime, according to Hardin.
Marx told officers that Woolverton had a cane that he sometimes used to poke people. He poked Marx in the chest several times, and Marx told him to stop, but he didn't. So Marx started hitting Woolverton with a brick, Hardin said.
"Once he saw blood, he just lost it," Hardin said of Marx.
Marx admitted that after Woolverton was dead, he smoked a cigarette, put the victim's glasses on his chest and then robbed him. Marx removed his own bloody shirt and hailed a cab, according to Hardin. He told the cab driver he had just been in a fight and the driver gave him another shirt to wear.
Marx signed a plea agreement in November. He later asked the agreement be thrown out over concerns that the documents he signed called Woolverton by the wrong first name and had the wrong date for the homicide.
Himonas denied Marx's request, and ordered that the guilty and no contest plea stand.
No family or friends of Woolverton were in court Friday. A stepson submitted a letter, but it was not made public.
A few supporters of Marx attended. One man who said he was Marx's brother, but would not give his name, said Marx was a "hardcore alcoholic" who was living on the streets in 1997.
The brother said Friday's resolution was fair and he was glad the case was finished.
"How do you put a value on someone's life?" the man asked.