Roy Hartsock met his future wife, Jenny, while he was on work release from state prison and married her the day he was paroled. Three months later, he stabbed her through the leg. Finally, on Jan. 9, he stabbed her to death, family members said outside court yesterday.

Their comments came after Hartsock pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter but agreed to accept a prison sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The victim's father, Thomas Uejo, objected in court to the deal, saying his family wanted Hartsock to be convicted of murder and then sentenced to an extended term of life without the possibility of parole.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jeen Kwak, citing the inherent risks of going to trial, said the deal requires Hartsock to receive the same penalty he would have received if he had been convicted of the original charge of second-degree murder.

Circuit Judge Richard Pollack accepted the plea bargain, saying he believed it met the ends of justice, and set sentencing for Sept. 29.

Uejo told the judge that he was concerned Hartsock, a career criminal with a long record of convictions, would find a way to win parole.

"He is an expert manipulator, a liar and a very big coward," Uejo told Pollack.

Hartsock's sister-in-law, Andrea Hartsock, asked Pollack to punish the defendant "to the full extent of the law, without any possibility of parole."

Kwak said outside court that the plea agreement "guarantees a life term in prison" for Hartsock.

Going to trial always carries a risk and Kwak said that, given the terms of the plea agreement, trying Hartsock for murder posed "a risk that I would not take, and will not take."

Uejo said his daughter, who was 39 years old and the mother of three children, worked near O'ahu Community Correctional Center and somehow met Hartsock last year when he was assigned to a work release program in preparation for his release on parole.

Hartsock had been serving time for a burglary and assault conviction in 2001. He had been sentenced to serve up to 10 years in prison for those offenses.

"They got married the day he got out of prison," Uejo said.

He said that Jenny left Hartsock shortly before she was killed because of "beatings that caused multiple bruises on her face and black eyes."

Tracey Uejo, the victim's older sister, said outside court that Hartsock stabbed Jenny in the leg in October "with a 14-inch knife." The knife went all the way through one leg and slightly penetrated the other, Tracey Uejo said.

Andrea Hartsock said that Jenny told family members the wound was an "accident" but later acknowledged that she only went along with that story because she was afraid of her husband.

Andrea Hartsock said she believed her brother-in-law was doing drugs that made him paranoid and violent.

"He was always saying that she was seeing someone else" and accused her of having affairs with two of his brothers, Andrea Hartsock wrote to the judge.

"Every day I think of Jenny and her family and it brings me to tears," she wrote.

"Jenny was such a nice, caring person that we were just getting to know and she was taken from us so brutally," the letter said.

Mercedes Hartsock, niece and goddaughter of the defendant, said outside court that she believes he should be put to death in the electric chair. Hawai'i does not have the death penalty.

"He's been nothing but an embarrassment to the family," she said. "I hate him."

Neighbors of the Hartsocks said they heard the couple arguing the night of the killing. One witness said he went outside when he heard Jenny Hartsock screaming for help and saw the defendant standing over her body in the hallway outside their apartment. He left her on the ground with a knife in her chest and ran away, the witness said.

Hartsock was arrested by police later that night.

He was charged with attempted murder of a woman in 1998 but the charge was dismissed after the victim could not be located to testify in the case.

He was also featured on "America's Most Wanted" television program after he escaped from O'ahu Community Correctional Center in 1990 using documents forged by another inmate.

He was arrested three weeks later in Chicago and returned to complete a prison sentence for second-degree robbery.