A life behind bars. The Shield actor Michael Jace, who was found guilty of murdering his wife on Tuesday, June 7, was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for second-degree murder on Friday, June 10.
According to Entertainment Tonight, the sentence includes 15 years to life for the murder charge, and 25 years to life for using a handgun to commit the crime.
“There is absolutely no justification for my actions on that night,” the 53-year-old actor told his wife’s family in court Friday, the Associated Press reports. “I am profoundly sorry for the pain I’ve caused everyone.”
Jace added that he wanted his late wife’s family to know that he didn’t commit first-degree murder. “There was no premeditated anything,” he added.
In May 2014, the actor fatally shot and killed his wife of 10 years, April Jace, in their L.A. home in the presence of their two young sons, then ages 8 and 5. At a court hearing on May 26, the older of the two boys testified in court.
“If you like running, then run to heaven,” their now-10-year-old son claimed his father said before shooting April.
As previously reported, Jace called 911 after shooting his wife three times, alleging that April lunged at him before he shot her. In a transcript of an interview with detectives immediately following the incident, Jace claimed he had only meant to wound his wife.
“I was just angry. All I intended to do was shoot her in the leg,” he told detectives in 2014, via CBS. “And then I shot her in the leg and that was it. I just ruined lives. Four lives. I mean, you could put a needle in my arm right now and be done. I’m fine with that.”
On Friday, prosecutor Tannaz Mokayef told jurors that Jace had to pull a heavy trigger several times to kill April.
“I don’t know how you can shoot somebody three times and call it an accident,” she said, according to the AP.
Jace was best known for playing policeman Julien Lowe on the 2002-2008 crime series The Shield.
