'Why Our Mom?' Daughter Asks At Sentencing Of NJ Cop Who Killed Ex-Wife

FREEHOLD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A veteran New Jersey police sergeant was sentenced to 30 years in prison for shooting and killing his ex-wife in broad daylight.

Just before the punishment came down two of his nine children told the judge that they hope he never gets out.

As TV 10/55's Dave Carlin reported, Philip Seidle spent much of his sentencing in Monmouth County court, avoiding eye contact with the six of his nine motherless kids who were in the room.

However, he did look at them to apologize.

"I am sorry. I am sorry," he said.

He admitted that he rammed his car into the one driven by his 51-year-old ex-wife Tamara in Asbury Park on June 16, 2015.

He then shot and killed her while the couple's 7-year-old daughter Theresa witnessed it from inside the car.

"I was struggling with something I had a great deal of difficulty with and I simply snapped," he said. "I just want the court to understand that was not me."

The couple's children told the court that they do not accept his apology or explanation, saying they remember Seidle controlling and beating their mother during their 24 year marriage, and killing her just weeks after their divorce went through.

"I cannot bear to see his image. I am embarrassed to share his name," son Philip Seidle Jr said.

After Philip Jr's emotional speech to the court, it was time for Kirsten Seidel to do the same. She began by looking at her father and asking him a simple question.

"Why our mom?"

She struggled to understand why her father had killed her mother.

"To this day we don't understand why," she said, "How can a man, especially a man trained in law enforcement lose his temper to the point of killing the mother of nine children?"

A plea deal reduced the main charge from murder to aggravated manslaughter, done to spare his children a lengthy trial and the trauma of having to testify.

"We feel justice was served under the circumstances, and we can only hope that his last days on earth will be spent behind bars," Monmouth County assistant prosecutor, Marc LeMieux said.

The siblings, described as closer now than ever, left the courthouse saying they hope they never see their father again.

Under the sentencing guidelines Seidle must serve no less than 85 percent of his 30 year sentence.