COLUMBUS, Ind. – A man said he was "dreadfully sorry" for beating his wife to death with a skillet, but a judge said the apology came too late and sentenced him to 62 years in prison.
Judge Stephen Heimann told Albert Boyd during a sentencing hearing Wednesday in Bartholomew Circuit Court that his apology was "too little, too late."
Boyd already had served time for attacking a woman with a butcher knife and had dropped out of psychological counseling that might have helped him control his anger before he killed his wife, Ruth Boyd, in their Columbus apartment on Jan. 31, Heimann said.
"It was a violent crime against an intimate person, which also helps buttress the fact that there is a risk you will commit another crime," the judge said.
Boyd served a seven-year prison sentence in Ohio for stabbing a woman in the neck and severing her ear with a 14-inch butcher knife, Heimann said. He been out of prison four years when he beat his wife in the face with an aluminum skillet so violently the pan was bent and the handle broke off.
"I had no intention of doing what happened to Ruth," said Boyd, 57. "I regret it from now on for the rest of my life."
Attorneys initially filed an insanity defense for Boyd but withdrew the defense in June. Two court-appointed psychiatrists determined that Boyd may have had a mental illness, but also said he showed signs he knew the crime was wrong.
Prosecutor Bill Nash asked Heimann to levy the maximum sentence against Boyd.
"This was an enormously brutal crime," Nash said. "A very horrific way to die."
Ruth Boyd's sister, Norma Flodder, said Boyd had robbed her family of their loved one.
"We as a family have already been given a life sentence," she said.
Boyd said he planned to appeal.
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