Photo by John Speer/CIP Dustin Jefferson with his defense attorney Thomas Gault at Jefferson’s sentencing for aiding and abetting the murder of his wife, Kerry O’Clair Jefferson, in Tama County District Court in Toledo on Thursday afternoon, May 5.

Dustin Jerome Jefferson, 40, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in his role in the stabbing death of his wife, Kerry O’Clair Jefferson, age 32, in Tama in 2013. Tama County District Court Judge Mary Chicchelly pronounced the mandatory sentence on Thursday afternoon, May 5. He also Jefferson, Toledo, was convicted of aiding and abetting in the murder of his wife at the Tama residence by a Jasper County District Court Jury on Feb. 9. The trial was moved to Newton from Toledo on a change of venue. He was also assessed a mandatory $150,000 civil penalty, restitution and a $7,500 payment ot the victims assistance program. Jefferson’s mother, Ginger Lea Jefferson, 60, is serving a life term on a 1st degree murder conviction in the case returned by a Tama County District Court Jury on May 27, 2014. On Thursday, Jefferson sat stoically in the courtroom looking straight ahead and sometimes downward as Kerry Jefferson’s mother and sister spoke in broken and sometimes hesitant voices in making victim impact statements. “I really can’t believe and don’t want to believe that you took Kerry’s life, but the evidence points to the fact you helped murder her,” Marlene O’Clair said as part of her statement. “You will be living your life with the knowledge that you took a life – your wife, my daughter, Nicole’s sister, Brooke and Maddy’s aunty, my sister’s niece and all your own family – you (have) no reason other than your own. Why didn’t you stop and thin about it that day?” In another part she said, “What got into you that day will never be known…only you, your mom and Kerry know. Now you get to live with the fact and knowledge that you took a life (for) no reason. I hope there is never a day that you wake up that this is not on your mind.” “Do you know it’s been 861 days since she’s been gone?” Nicole Hitchcock addressed th defendant during her victim statement. “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about her and I miss her like crazy. The girls miss her like crazy. There’s been so many times I’ve needed her and because of you she’s not here.” She said, And the girls, well they don’t understand. And they still have nights they can;’t sleep because they miss aunt Kerry. And to be truthful they miss you, too. And their little hearts and brains just can’t comprehend. When given the opportunity to speak, Dustin Jefferson, in a low and halting voice, turned to Kerry O’Clair Jefferson’s family and friends seated behind him in the courtroom and expressed his sorrow from “deep down inside.” The case was brought by Tama Police and prosecuted by Assistant Iowa Attorney General Laura Roan and Tama County Attorney Brent Heeren.Attorney Thomas Gault, Des Moines, served as Jefferson’s defense attorney. Jefferson has 30 days to appeal.