Jayce and Jordan Johnson have no friends. They don't want to have to explain why they aren't living with their parents.
The boys, who are 12 and 16, respectively, don't want anyone to know their father stabbed their mother, Kathryn, to death.
"They will never escape the stigma their father has left them with," the boys' aunt Diane Dirette told Pima County Superior Court Judge Deborah Bernini on Monday.
Bernini, in a bench trial last month, found James Darrell Johnson, 53, the boys' father, guilty of second-degree murder.
Johnson faced 10 to 22 years in prison, and at his sentencing Monday, Bernini gave him the 22-year maximum after listening to Dirette and other family members speak about Kathryn Johnson's death and the impact it had on their lives.
She also read nearly a dozen letters from Kathryn Johnson's family and watched a picture slide show of her life set to Sarah McLachlan's "Angel."
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Although the couple had divorced, Deputy Pima County Attorney Mark Diebolt said Johnson was living in the couple's home.
They apparently argued on the evening of Nov. 4, 2005, and Kathryn Johnson, 46, was stabbed 37 times and struck with a blunt object 23 times.
There was blood throughout the house and in the backyard, and evidence Kathryn's killer had tried to clean the scene, Diebolt said.
Blood tests showed James Johnson had high levels of a sedative in his system and that the victim was inebriated, Diebolt said.
On Monday, Diebolt argued for the maximum sentence, noting Johnson's 1974 drug conviction, the gratuitous violence involved and the fact the couple's sons were sleeping just feet away during the attack.
Although he has visited 25 homicide scenes and seen photos from 50 others, Diebolt said Kathryn Johnson's death was by far the worst he had seen.
She had to have a closed-casket service, Diebolt said.
"This case of all cases, your honor, screams for the maximum sentence," Diebolt said.
Defense attorney Harold Higgins argued for a more lenient sentence and objected to the "lopsided" picture of his client that he said came out in the letters.
The couple met in rehab, and both of them clearly were under the influence that night, Higgins said.
Moreover, Jordan testified that his mother was the one who was being verbally aggressive that night and that his father was backing up at one point, hoping to avoid antagonizing her further, Higgins said.
"To make Mr. Johnson totally responsible for this situation is just wrong," Higgins said.
There was also testimony during the trial saying his client is bipolar, one symptom of which is poor impulse control, Higgins said.
James Johnson can't remember what happened that night, but the evidence clearly shows he didn't have the capacity to understand the wrongfulness of his actions because of the drugs he had taken, Higgins said.
In his letter to the judge, Johnson wrote, "I pray each and every day that the family and friends of Kathy can forgive me."
He went on to write that if he could switch places with Kathryn, he would in "half a heartbeat."
Before imposing the sentence, Bernini said she will never forget what the Johnson boys went through in the weeks leading up to their mother's death.
Jayce, who had just turned 11, recalled how he learned to make instant mashed potatoes so he and his brother would have something to eat, Bernini said.
Jordan recalled living on Halloween candy, Bernini said.
"Special attention needs to be given to these boys," Bernini said. "They didn't deserve this."
