WACO, Texas (ABP) -- A former Baptist minister was sentenced Jan. 21 to 65 years in prison for murdering his wife by drugging her and smothering her with a pillow while their two daughters slept in a nearby bedroom.

A jury in Waco, Texas, returned the sentence on Matt Baker after deliberating four hours at the end of the penalty phase of a trial that lasted eight days. On Jan. 20 the jury of seven women and five men found Baker, a graduate of Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary who worked as a pastor at several Baptist churches in central Texas, guilty of murder in the death of his wife, Kari, in April 2006.

Authorities originally ruled the death a suicide by sleeping pills. But, after being convinced by Kari Baker's parents to reopen the investigation, her body was exhumed for an autopsy and authorities changed the cause of death to "undetermined."

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