Paul Hindle has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for 14 years for the murder of his common-law wife Lisa Lebitka.

Hindle was charged with second-degree murder in January of last year for the murder of Lebitka, 45.

Hindle strangled Lebitka back in 2011, just three days after Christmas. He pleaded guilty last year.

Justice John McMahon said Wednesday that Lebitka had been "ambushed in the safety of her home" and that she was "killed by the man she trusted."

Lebitka, an interior designer, lived with Hindle and her three children from a previous marriage.

The reason for the murder, McMahon said, was that Hindle knew a web of lies he had spun about receiving a large sum of money was about to unravel.

In passing sentence, McMahon said Hindle had opportunities to save Lebitka but instead tried to cover up her murder in an attempt to save himself from prosecution.

In his remarks McMahon said after killing Lebitka, Hindle "tried to hook-up with a local waitress who he knew, told her his wife was out with friends and he was alone and invited her to call."

The judge also said Hindle only expressed remorse after he was arrested.

"His actions were not that of a person who was either distraught or filled with remorse," McMahon said.

However the judge also said he took into consideration Hindle's guilty plea.

Lebitka's friends and family packed the courtroom for Wednesday's sentencing. Her 12-year-old daughter Paige Donaldson said the sentence won't change anything and said violence will forever be part of her life.

"Violence is in my life now and so I don't have a way of getting out of it," she told reporters outside the court. "So I just have to keep living and not thinking about that kind of stuff."