Janet Redmond-Mercereau will spend the rest of her life in prison for killing Supervising Fire Marshal Douglas Mercereau.

Mercereau's family members greeted Justice Robert J. Collini with loud applause when he slammed the former teacher of English at Tottenville High School with the maximum 25 years to life behind bars for murdering her husband as he slept in the couple's Oakwood home on Dec. 2, 2007. Their two young daughters were sleeping in the next room.

"You stole away the father of your two little girls," Collini told the convicted killer. "In the final analysis, you stole away their own mother, too."

Dressed in a black jacket, black shirt, a black and blue print ankle-length skirt and black flat shoes, Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau appeared stoic and emotionless at the sentencing. She was convicted of second-degree murder in May.

When asked if she wished to speak on her own behalf, Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau declined.

"There was really nothing she was going to add that was going to change the judge's mind," said her attorney, Mario Gallucci, outside state Supreme Court, St. George.

"I think his mind was made up before he entered the courtroom," Gallucci said in respect of the maximum sentence. "We expected nothing less."

Assistant District Attorneys Yolanda Rudich and Adam Silberlight maintained during trial that Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau shot her husband three times in the head with his service pistol as he slept in his bed inside their Tarring Street home because she was fed up with his gibes at her weight and housekeeping.

The convicted killer than tried to cover her tracks by running the gun through the dishwasher to erase prints, prosecutors argued.

Ms. Rudich yesterday asked the judge for the maximum sentence for "a cold-blooded crime committed when the two young daughters were in the house."

District Attorney Daniel Donovan called the sentence "appropriate and just."

"Yes, it's absolutely closure," Mercereau's sister, Betsy Gallo, said outside the courthouse. "Doug appreciated justice. This is a just day."

Jim Mercereau, the victim's brother, said in his victim's impact statement that Mercereau died trying to hold his family together after Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau had kicked him out of the home and filed for divorce.

The couple dropped the divorce and Mercereau moved back into the home -- which had belonged to his parents -- a few months before he was shot to death.

"He said, 'Jimmy, I'm going to do whatever I can to keep my family together,'" Jim Mercereau said. "If Doug didn't care about his marriage, we wouldn't be here today. He hung in there. That was a fatal decision."

Outside the courthouse, Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau's attorneys, Gallucci and Joseph Benfante, said they would appeal.

Benfante faulted the jury for overlooking evidence showing a palm print on the murder weapon that didn't belong to Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau or the victim.

The 12-member panel, which was sequestered during deliberations, reached its unanimous verdict after reportedly being sent back to the hotel deadlocked at nine to three in favor of conviction.

Benfante claimed jurors were stampeded into reaching a verdict before the Memorial Day weekend.

"Juries make mistakes," Benfante said, vowing to "win" on appeal. "(Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau) did not get a fair trial. Jurors were fighting. ... This is not what you would call an open-and-shut case."

Asked how Mrs. Mercereau took the sentence, Gallucci replied: "She said, 'This is just the first battle in a very long war.'"

Jeff Harrell covers courts for the Advance. He may be reached at harrell@siadvance.com.