A Cape York man who killed a woman when he drove a car into a house full of mourners at his wife's funeral in Kowanyama in 2016 has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and banned from driving for life.

Garry Paul Hudson, 57, had been charged with the murder of one of the mourners, 48-year-old Delanne Zingle.

He denied murdering Ms Zingle, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter

Last Friday, a Supreme Court jury, after 20 minutes of deliberation, found Hudson not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.

Hudson had also pleaded guilty to eight counts of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm.

The funeral was for Hudson's wife and partner of two decades, Katherine George, whom he had cared for during her 15-month battle with cancer.

Hudson was angry that Ms George's body had been taken to her sister's house, despite a different arrangement being agreed at mediation earlier that day.

In sentencing, Justice Jim Henry labelled Hudson's actions as self-indulgent and told him he had caused a catastrophic and lasting impact on his victims and the community.

Hudson had worked as an Indigenous ranger in the town of Kowanyama. ( ABC News: Kirsty Nancarrow - file photo )

"Your reaction smacked not only of feelings of grief, upset anger and betrayal ... but they also of smacked of extraordinary self-indulgence, selfishness, a complete disregard, really, for the safety and wellbeing of anyone other than yourself," he said.

"If you had kept control...the sun would have still come up the next day, you would still have had a dead wife, you would have known you'd taken the high moral ground and acted with dignity, Delanne [Zingle] would still be alive.

Justice Hudson said the mode of offending involved "extraordinary violations of the sanctity of the house and property" by driving a Landcruiser into and through the walls of the house, twice.

"It disrupted the solemn ceremony occurring, to the extent that your driving smashed open your dead wife's coffin spilling her body on the floor."

"Then, surely not blind to the carnage you just wrought, you repeated the entire process a second time.

"As hard-done as you may have been, your extraordinary over-reaction to that has resulted in lasting, catastrophic impact on an enormous number of people," he said,

'He used a vehicle as a weapon'

Delanne Zingle was killed when Hudson drove his ute into the house ( Facebook )

In his closing address to the jury on Friday, prosecutor Nigel Rees said it was a "calculated and deliberate act" intended to kill or do grievous bodily harm to those in the house.

"He deliberately gets into his vehicle, he buckles up … and he uses that vehicle as a weapon," he said.

Defence barrister Joshua Trevino said Hudson, fragile and grieving, was subjected to "extraordinary" provocation and his anger "overwhelmed him".

Hudson and Ms George's family each wanted the viewing of her body at their respective houses, and ended up at mediation the morning of the funeral during which Ms George's family demanded all her white goods, then all her possessions as well as her body.

They agreed the body would be viewed at the morgue before they went to the church, but pallbearers took Ms George's body to her sister's house at the family's behest.

The court heard Hudson saw the hearse heading to the house and drove over, telling those inside: "You told me a lie".

Three witnesses reported hearing Ms Zingle tell Hudson to "f... off".

Hudson was heard to respond, "I'll be back", after which he got in the vehicle and crashed through the fence and the front of the house.