Tim Lambesis, singer for the Christian heavy metal band As I Lay Dying, has been sentenced to six years in prison for attempting to hire a hit-man to kill his wife.

Lambesis was sentenced today (May 16) by Judge Carlos Armour of the San Diego Superior Court to six years in state prison for paying an undercover agent posing as a hitman to kill his estranged wife, Meggan.

Lambesis, 33, pled guilty in February to a felony murder solicitation charge and had faced up to nine years behind bars.

Speaking of Lambesis last spring, on air radio personality Tim Pyles of FM 94/9 said:

“He’s not the idealistic young Christian kid he once was, apparently. Because that’s what [As I Lay Dying] are: a straight-edged Christian metal band. He (Lambesis) was a nice guy…”

However, in a very long, rambling, self-serving and poorly conducted interview released by Alternative Press, Lambesis seems to suggest his use of steroids and embrace of atheism accounted for his criminal and immoral behavior.

In the interview, Lambesis claims he was not a Christian at the time he agreed to pay a hit-man over $20,000 to kill his wife. Yet like any good con artist preaching the gospel to the gullible, he was happy to separate the faithful from their money.