Kelle Lee Jarka told a judge at his sentencing Friday for murdering his wife that he prays to be exonerated.

His brother-in-law told the judge there was a lack of evidence.

The judge wasn't buying it.

Saying the "evidence was overwhelming," Superior Court Judge Timothy Freer sentenced the 41-year-old Murrieta resident to life in prison without the possibility of parole for committing murder and doing it for financial gain.

Freer said that through Jarka's greed and the process of plotting the crime "he lost all those things that make us human."

"All that was left was pure evil," the judge said. "That's what he was ---- pure evil ---- nothing more, nothing less."

A jury in September found Jarka guilty of killing his wife, 40-year-old Isabelle Jarka, on the morning of April 28, 2008, when her body was found lying in the hallway and doorway leading to the couple's upstairs bedroom. An autopsy revealed a heavy object had been used to bash her head 11 times, with a number of the blows severe enough to have caused death.

Kelle Jarka had called 911 that morning to tell a dispatcher he had returned from an errand to find that the family's house on Tamarisk Street had been broken into and that he found his wife's lifeless body lying upstairs, as their baby son cried in his crib in the bedroom.

Based on evidence at the scene, investigators suspected the burglary was staged and that Jarka was the killer. Detectives found insurance policies valued up to $1.3 million that he had only recently taken out on his wife and also uncovered Internet searches on his computer about methods of causing death. Records also indicated that, after having lived fairly lavishly, the Jarka family was sliding into debt. Testimony, including that given on the stand by their teenage daughter, revealed there were escalating marital differences.

However, a murder weapon was never found and in defending Jarka's innocence, his attorneys portrayed him and the family as undergoing normal tensions before an unexpected tragedy occurred.

Bill Schafer, who is married to Jarka's sister, delivered a passionate statement Friday in support of his brother-in-law in Freer's courtroom at Southwest Justice Center in French Valley. Alluding to Jarka's upbringing as a Jehovah's Witness, Schafer said Jarka was morally bound to confess the crime if he had done it.

"The fact is, in Kelle's case, the police never had any physical evidence and they still don't," Schafer said. "There's nothing to link him to this crime."

Speaking on his own behalf, Jarka said in a trembling voice that he treasures the years he spent with his wife and prays his innocence will be discovered.

"All I have now is memories," he said. "I remember every second of those 20 years."

Prosecutor Burke Strunsky said he wasn't surprised by Jarka's reiteration of his innocence.

"He's very good at putting on the face he wants everybody else to see," Strunsky said. "He tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the family, he tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the police, and today he tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the court."

Isabelle Jarka's sisters Laura McGraw and Maritza Trelak also addressed the judge as their mother and father and other family members looked on,

"I recount that dreadful morning when her life was taken over and over and over," Trelak said, adding, "We now as a family belong to a club we never wanted membership in."

Paul McGraw, who along with his wife, Laura, have adopted the Jarkas' two children, said after the sentencing that while justice was served, the emotional scars remain.

"I don't feel closure," he said. "It doesn't bring her back. It doesn't help the children. It doesn't help the family. It's going to take a long time for the family to heal completely from this."

Call staff writer Michael J. Williams at 951-676-4315, ext. 2635.