Tennessee attorney Fred Wortman apologized to his wife Staci on Tuesday for trying to kill her three different times, WMC Action News 5 reports. He was in court to accept a plea deal.

Prosecutors said that Wortman tried to have his estranged wife (who had filed for a divorce, after 14 years of marriage, due to Wortman’s infidelity) killed twice—first, by attempting to hire a hitman. That same day, he video chatted their children to wish the youngest a happy birthday.

“He FaceTimed them that morning. I’ll never forget that. Because that was the last time they saw him,” Staci Wortman told The Commercial Appeal. “And he FaceTimed telling them happy birthday, have a great day, and then, what, four hours later? He was sitting in a car trying to plan my death.”

It wasn’t the first time Wortman had tried to kill his estranged wife. (Earlier, he had poisoned her toothpaste.) But the hitman turned out to be an undercover Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent. While in custody, after a grand jury indicted him for attempted first-degree murder, Wortman offered a fellow inmate money to kill his wife.

The plea Wortman accepted on Tuesday was regarding the toothpaste incident, Action News 5 reports. He accepted pleas in the other charges on Monday. Altogether the deal Wortman took gave him a 30-year prison sentence; he could be eligible for parole in nine years.

“No apology which I offer will be sufficient to all who I have disappointed, let down and hurt. I do apologize to Staci, the Jones, my parents, my family, most of all I apologize to my three precious children,” Wortman said.

His wife also took the stand. “Auston, your children, are praying for you daily that your heart will change,” she said. “They know he wanted me not to be alive anymore...They know he has to face the consequences.”

Staci Wortman also spoke to reporters outside the courtroom on Tuesday. “It’s just unbelievable that the person I’ve known for 18 years could do this,” she said. “I’ve heard people say what their abuse, domestic violence, there was nothing. There was none of that in our marriage.”

Image via WMC Action News 5. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.