Professional gambler jailed in US for murder of wife

Marcus Bebb-Jones, aged 49, had previously denied killing his wife Sabrina, with whom he ran a hotel in Grand Junction, Colorado, as the couple returned from a day out at the state's

Dinosaur National Monument in 1997. But he pleaded guilty earlier this year to second-degree murder in the heat of passion.

Before he was sentenced in America last night, the 49-year-old from Kidderminster said he was 'sorry' for killing the 31-year-old, in a split-second 'action of rage'.

Earlier, his son Daniel, aged 19, and mother, 69-year-old retired district nurse Pamela Weaver, both still living in Kidderminster, begged the court for leniency – while his victim's family pleaded for the maximum term.

Bebb-Jones told Judge Daniel Petre at the court in Glenwood Springs, Colorado: "I didn't intentionally kill Sabrina but what I did was wrong and I ask for your forgiveness".

Standing to address the judge, in a quiet voice, Bebb-Jones said that he and Sabrina 'were doing exactly what we dreamed of doing' in Colorado and were happy.

"And in the blink of an eye everything changed, and I'm sorry," he said.

Sabrina's siblings and parents asked the judge to impose the 20-year maximum . "He took her life, he took our grandson away and our daughter for no reason," said Sabrina's father, Dang Thanh Danh, in a statement read by her youngest brother, Mike Dang.

But Daniel Bebb-Jones, who was only three at the time of his mother's murder, and the killer's mother wrote to the court asking for as short a sentence as possible.

After hearing of the sentence last night, Mrs Weaver said: "It's what we expected."

Daniel said: "We're too upset to talk about it at the moment."

Sabrina's skull was found by a rancher in 2004 near Douglas Pass, in a remote spot in western Garfield County. By then Bebb-Jones had sold the hotel and been back in his home town in Kidderminster for five years.

But he was arrested in Kidderminster, in 2009 and extradited two years later.

He had became a successful gambler, winning £90,000 in a 2007 tournament.