'Shield' actor gets 40 years to life in wife's killing

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An actor who played a police officer on the TV show "The Shield" was sentenced today to 40 years to life in prison after tearfully apologizing for fatally shooting his wife but still insisting he didn't mean to kill her.

Michael Jace, 53, was sentenced by a judge in Los Angeles after a jury convicted him last week of second-degree murder in the death of April Jace.

"There is absolutely no justification for my actions on that night," Jace told his wife's family members in court. "I am profoundly sorry for the pain that I've caused everyone."

He said it was important that her family know that he didn't commit first-degree murder. "There was no premeditated anything," he said.

April Jace's mother, Kay Henry, angrily shook her head and walked out of the courtroom in the middle of his comments.

Henry addressed the court before Jace did, weeping as she talked about her daughter, saying the night she was killed, "we both died."