A man who tried to pin his wife's brutal slaying on their 12-year-old daughter was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for first-degree murder.
Brad Reay, 47, is not eligible for parole.
Holly Givens, the sister of victim Tami Reay, 41, said in court Tuesday that Reay had a selfish obsession to control his wife and fulfilled it last year by killing her and blaming their daughter.
"What kind of a father lies and blames so viciously his flesh and blood?" Givens said.
Before he was sentenced, Reay stood in the courtroom and said he loved his daughter, Haylee, now 13, but never turned to look at her in the front row just a few feet away.
Nor did he take a last chance to watch as she left the courtroom, even though the judge's sentence bars him from ever having written or telephone contact with her or his wife's family.
Reay testified at his trial that he found Haylee with a knife in her hand, standing over her mother's dead body in her bed in the middle of the night. He said the girl has no memory of what she did and that his only crime was trying to cover it up.
"I gave up my life because I love her," Reay said Tuesday of his daughter.
Tami Reay's nude body was found in an isolated area several miles north of the capital city. She'd been stabbed three dozen times.
The woman was reported missing by her lover and a co-worker when she failed to show up for work. Brad Reay was immediately suspected because his wife's lover told police about their affair.
Reay was convicted in January.
Haylee did not testify Tuesday, but she provided the judge with a written statement that was not released.
Reay's twin brother, Bret Reay, was sentenced Tuesday for trying to help frame the lover. The judge sentenced him to the 172 days he'd been held in jail before agreeing to testify against his brother, and he was released.
Brad Reay did not look up Tuesday as Tami Reay's mother, Bonnie Burns, tearfully read a statement to him.
"We trusted you for many years and you deceived us," Burns said. "You have taken all you can from this family. On this earth, you will not receive enough punishment for your heinous crime."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070307/ap_on_re_us/wife_stabbed;_ylt=Ah5bAATPT3w4tIaiZUiFxbdvzwcF
Well gang, what do you think?