A Dallas federal judge called James McDaniel "inhumane and barbaric" after sentencing him to life in prison Wednesday for plying Southern Methodist University student Meaghan Bosch with drugs and dumping her body near Waco after she fatally overdosed.

"When you realized that she was not going to wake up, you covered your tracks," said U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay. "You did not intend for her to die, but you put her in that position."

A federal jury convicted McDaniel, 49, in June of causing Bosch's death. Construction workers found her body May 14, 2007, in a portable toilet in Hewitt, just south of Waco.

Evidence showed that as her family, friends and police frantically searched for her, Bosch lay in McDaniel's duplex, barely breathing and nearly comatose from drugs. At one point, McDaniel, gun in hand, kept two men from taking her to the emergency room.

Lindsay on Wednesday also had a message for SMU, which faced criticism after Bosch and two other students died from drugs and alcohol within six months of each other.

"If there is any good that comes out this, I hope the administrators at Southern Methodist University address drug and alcohol problems on campus," Lindsay said. "I am not picking on SMU. I am sure this occurs elsewhere. But when you have three deaths, something needs to be done."

SMU Vice President for Student Affairs Lori White said Wednesday afternoon, "We appreciate and share the concerns expressed by Judge Lindsay regarding the national issue of substance abuse."

After the students' deaths, the school implemented several new substance-abuse programs, she said. "Solving this problem requires a partnership among students, parents, institutions and the larger community, and we remain committed to doing our part."

Before Lindsay announced the sentence, McDaniel apologized to the Bosch family in court.

"You may say, 'He's a psychopath, he's a monster,' but I never intended for that to happen," McDaniel said.

But he also told the judge that nearly every witness at his June trial lied, and that he did not provide the drugs that killed the 21-year-old SMU student. The judge told McDaniel that the government had overwhelming evidence against him.

When it was her time to address the court and ask for a life sentence for McDaniel, tears streaked down the face of Lynn Bosch, Meaghan's mother.

"You took away my future," she said, turning to McDaniel. "I don't want vengeance. I just want to make sure you'll never be able to do this to another child."

Bosch's father, Joe Bosch, said he was relieved by the judge's sentence. "Meaghan was not prepared to meet this kind of criminal," he said. "He is not going anywhere."

Lindsay said that McDaniel must finish serving his life sentence in state prison before he will begin his federal sentence.

McDaniel was paroled from state custody in 2001 after serving 22 years for the 1978 slaying of former Dallas police officer James Horan, 33. Last year, McDaniel's parole was revoked, but he is up again for parole in 2014, which is when he will likely be transferred to federal prison, state prison officials said.

Federal prosecutor Brandon McCarthy questioned Wednesday how McDaniel was able to receive parole despite approximately 200 incidents of violence – including stabbings, assaults on guards and even inciting a riot – while he was in Texas prisons.

"For some reason unbeknownst to me, he got out," McCarthy said. "He is the worst of the worst. He has killed man, woman and child."

He was referring to a third death in which McDaniel was implicated but never prosecuted.

When McDaniel was on the run following the Horan killing, he was arrested in an Illinois motel room. In his closet, police found the body of an 8-year-old boy whose body bore teeth marks.

McDaniel was extradited back to Texas for Horan's death and was never tried for the boy's death.

On Wednesday, McDaniel admitted killing Horan, but did not mention the boy.

"I did commit that crime," McDaniel told Ralph Horan, brother of the former Dallas officer. "I was 18. I never apologized. It may be long overdue, but I've lived with that every day for the last 30 years."

Ralph Horan said McDaniel should never have been released from state prison.

"Meaghan Bosch would be alive today," he said. "Granted, she made some bad choices, but to run into this guy – that's something that's going to stay with me forever.