Staff photo / Ed Runyan Jerry Rydarowicz, left, speaks to Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Monday before the judge sentenced Rydarowicz to 15-years to life in prison for killing his estranged wife, Katherine. At right is his attorney, John Juhasz.

YOUNGSTOWN — Janine Jones, mother of Katherine Rydarowicz, told Judge Anthony Donofrio that she urged her daughter to leave Jerry Rydarowicz “before he hurt her badly or killed her.”

“All she could say is, ‘Jerry loves me, and I’ll be OK.’ The night the police officers came to our door, the first thing out of my mouth was, ‘He killed her, didn’t he?'”

Francis “Jerry” Rydarowicz, 50, did kill her, a jury concluded earlier this month during a trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Jurors found him guilty of killing Katherine, 41, on June 22, 2019, at the Kings Motel on U.S. Route 422 in Coitsville. The judge on Monday sentenced Rydarowicz, who faced two counts of murder, two counts of domestic violence and one count of felonious assault, to 15-years to life.

Defense attorney John Juhasz said that was the only sentence allowed under the law. Jurors found Rydarowicz not guilty of aggravated murder, which would have carried a more serious penalty.

Katherine Rydarowicz was found stabbed to death on the driveway outside the motel. Jerry Rydarowicz also had stab wounds to the neck and left wrist.

Jerry Rydarowicz had testified that Katherine attacked him at the motel with a hunting knife after he allowed her to come to his motel room to get her belongings. He said he helped carry three loads of items to the pickup truck she was using.

After the third trip, Rydarowicz returned to the room and Katherine asked to look around one more time.

“I went over to lift the box spring and mattress from the bed, and then I felt a sharp pain in my neck,” he said, claiming she had stabbed him.

“I got the knife off of her and she turned,” Jerry Rydarowicz said of stabbing her in the back. “It was like a one-second blur, all that happened to me.” He said he stabbed her because he feared for his life.

Prosecutors contended that Jerry Rydarowicz’s DNA was the only DNA on the knife handle and pointed out that he did not call 911 after stabbing Katherine.

Janine Jones wanted the judge to know her daughter had two children — a son who has graduated from high school and a daughter who graduated from college and started medical school on Monday.

When it was the defendant’s turn to speak, he said: “I would like to say there are no meaningful words to say how sorry I am for the family and Katherine. This should have never happened, and I know what she meant” to her family, he said. “I just want to say how sorry I am for what had happened.”

Donofrio noted that Rydarowicz had three previous domestic violence charges involving his wife.

“All I can say is, no one deserves to be abused or a victim of domestic violence. Nobody deserves to be subjected to behaviors that intimidate, terrorize, frighten, manipulate and hurt, whether that hurt is psychological or physical,” the judge said.

“Viewing your history of domestic violence with Katherine says a whole lot about you. Your continual need for power or control over her seen through your eyes is the epitome of a love-hate relationship — hate winning over in the end,” Donofrio said.

Rydarowicz, who formerly lived in Hubbard Township, gets credit for more than two years in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial.