Kenneth Ferguson, 43, was sentenced to 20 years in jail Feb. 18 after pleading guilty to second degree murder in the strangling death of his wife.

Valerie Ferguson, 44, was found dead in the bedroom of the family home in April 2008. Ferguson was charged with first-degree murder and the prosecution had strong evidence that the killing was planned, but accepted the plea to the lesser charge to spare the family a drawn-out trial.

Valerie’s mother, Ruth Usick, said the family is relieved Ferguson plead guilty and they can put it all behind them.

“I don’t think there’s any mother that wants to see her child in jail for life, but as I said when we first started in 2008, we committed him to God and to the courts of Canada, so I personally feel justice has been done fairly.”

Ruth and her husband Stan are caring for the couple’s two children.

Usick said it was important for her to speak at the sentencing, when she told Ferguson she forgave him for killing her daughter.

“I think that way you can say what’s really in your heart to him, because that was really the only opportunity we had to be with him. I know for me … I had a great peace about it.”

Ferguson was given an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 20 years.

Usick said she still wonders why Ferguson didn’t just walk away from the marriage.

“It’s one of those things that I don’t know if we’ll ever find an answer to that. To me it was just senseless, but it’s done and it’s done with now. We can move on.”