A judge sentenced a Bowling Green man who shot and killed his wife to 15 years in prison.

Warren Circuit Judge Chris Cohron imposed the sentence Monday against Terry Ernest Thomas, 77, who had pleaded guilty last month to a charge of first-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of Mary Frances Thomas, 77, who was shot in their home on Blue Bell Way.

The couple were involved in a verbal argument on Jan. 9, 2024, that escalated to the point that Terry Thomas fired a handgun and fatally struck his wife while they were in their bedroom.

The sentencing hearing presented differing accounts of the couple’s relationship, each given by two relatives who gave victim impact statements.

Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Kori Beck Bumgarner read a statement in court that was said to be from the family of Mary Wilson Thomas.

That statement, coming from her siblings, described Terry Thomas as a “manipulative, abusive husband” who subjected his wife to mental and emotional abuse, and later physical abuse as he fell into alcoholism.

Mary Thomas left the home in 2008 ahead of a divorce that was finalized in 2011, with what the statement described as a stream of verbal abuse in between from Terry Thomas.

The couple eventually got back together, which the statement said caused an estrangement between Mary F. Thomas and her siblings.

“We never stopped worrying about her or wondering how she was,” the statement said. “Losing someone to a natural death is devastating enough, but losing someone you love to domestic violence – cold blooded murder, there are no words to describe the pain and guilt that we could have done more to prevent.”

The couple’s daughter, Cathy Caldwell, also read from a statement Monday at her father’s sentencing, saying she never witnessed her father act abusively toward her mother.

Caldwell said that Mary F. Thomas struggled with a dependency on multiple medications that made her “volatile, unstable, emotionally unpredictable.”

In the months leading up to the shooting, Caldwell said she tried to reach out to her father, but never heard back, saying that her mother kept Caldwell and her father isolated from one another.

“I’m aware of the domestic claims my mother made in the past against my father. She never wanted to explain them to me and my brother,” Caldwell said in court. “We never saw the violent man she described, not once, and the only family member who continues to push the idea that my father was abusive is the same deceptive stepsister of my mom, who manipulated my mother out of her finances and cut me and my brother from her will.”

As he imposed the 15-year sentence, Cohron acknowledged this was a “very difficult case for all those concerned” before addressing Thomas directly.

“I’ve been part of the criminal justice system for 25 years and if I’ve learned anything, I do know that nobody can ever know the full story, either way, of what goes on behind closed doors,” Cohron said. “However, what we do know in this case, Mr. Thomas, is that unfortunately you made the decision to take your wife’s life and that requires a significant penalty for which you will be serving.”