Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11) - Michael Whitehead was sentenced to 12 years in prison without probation.
He's the former emergency worker who injected his wife with stolen drugs.
He pled guilty to reckless homicide after injecting his own wife with stolen medicine.
"This is the only thing that's going to help him wake up and help him realize what he's done is so wrong. He can never do it again," says Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Thomas Van De Rostyne.
"This really wasn't an accident. I believe the actions were predictable and I believe they were tragic," says Jefferson County Judge Irv Maze.
Michael Whitehead faced a judge Tuesday while family members on both sides of this tragedy sat in court.
He pled guilty to reckless homicide, theft and practicing medicine without a license.
Prosecutors say he intentionally put his wife, Ashley Shanahan-Whitehead, in danger before she died of cardiac arrest in March.
On Tuesday, discovery revealed that the former EMT stole medication from his ambulance company.
The Commonwealth says he then crushed the pills and injected Ashley 37 times with drugs like Hydrocodone over a long period of time.
Police say she had an illness.
According to family, it was Chron's Disease.
But Whitehead's mother tells WHAS11 News there is more to this story.
"She was a drug addict and all of those needle marks weren't from Michael. She frequently injected herself," says Theresa Davis, Whitehead’s mother.
Whitehead and his wife had a young child together.
Whitehead’s attorney plans on filing for shock probation within six months.
