DETROIT -- A school administrator who hid his wife's body in a freezer for 3 years after battering her to death in a jealous rage was sentenced Wednesday to 20 to 40 years in prison.
Leonard Tyburski, who was convicted of second-degree murder for the slaying of his 37-year-old wife, Dorothy, could have received a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Defense Attorney Carole Stanyar called the sentence 'very, very harsh' and said an appeal was possible. Glenn Page, the prosecutor who handled the case, could not be reached for comment.
Tyburski, 46, admitted he repeatedly smashed his wife's head into a basement pillar after she taunted him about her affair with her daughter's 18-year-old boyfriend.
Kelly Tyburski, 20, discovered her mother's body in the basement of the family's Canton Township home in January.
The former administrator at Detroit's Mackenzie High School said he put his wife's body in the freezer because he loved her too much to just dump it somewhere.
Tyburski said he was ashamed of what he had done and sorry he had taken his children's mother away from them. He asked Wayne County Circuit Judge Richard Hathaway for a chance to be reunited with his family.
Stanyar said her client was upset with the sentence he received.
'Obviously, the freezer and concealing the body for three years had the biggest emotional impact on people, the jury and obviously the judge,' the lawyer said.
'I think that's certainly understandable because it's so shocking,' she added. '(But) it's unfortunate because it diverts attention from what the legal issue in the case was -- whether or not this was a heat of passion crime. I still believe it was.'
