ST. JOHNSBURY — A 51-year-old Vermont man is going to prison for 18 years for killing his wife in the parking lot of a St. Johnsbury mall after she threatened to leave him.

Benjamin Berwick, of Lyndon, pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder in the December 2009 stabbing death of his estranged wife Anna outside the Green Mountain Mall.

At Friday’s sentencing hearing in St. Johnsbury, Anna Berwick’s relatives called Benjamin Berwick a “monster” and an “evil man.” They said they did not believe the sentence was harsh enough.

Berwick was taken into custody shortly after his wife’s killing. He was suffering from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.