After first denying it, and later confessing, William Pete White pleaded guilty to killing his estranged wife, Melissa.
Under terms of a plea deal with prosecutors, White was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He will have to serve 100 percent of the sentence.
White admitted beating his wife with a crowbar after she decided to finally leave him.
In court White apologized to Melissa's family.
"I am truly sorry. Not only did I take her life, I took out of you guys' lives. I stacked the deck against my kids. I'll live for the rest of my life wishing it was me. I am sorry what I put you through the past three yeas. I shouldn't have been a coward. I should have owned up to it then", he said in an unsworn statement in court.
Melissa White had filed for an order of protection against her estranged husband shortly before one of her young children found her, suffering from multiple skull fractures, at her home in Viola in October 2011. Melissa White died of her injuries.
Although court records showed Pete White was cited for violating that protection order in July 2011, he repeatedly denied any knowledge of what happened to Melissa.
As his late-October 2014 trial date approached for two other unrelated cases, Pete White reportedly changed his story and confessed to Melissa's murder.
White was formally charged October 15, 2014, with one count of first-degree murder.
At a routinely-scheduled pre-trial hearing on Monday, October 27, 2014, White entered a guilty plea to the murder charge in Mercer County Court.
He initially was facing 60 years to life in prison.