"There's a fine line between tough love and compassion," said Judge Angela Pasula

Michigan Man Gets Nearly 20 Years in Prison for Letting His Drunk Girlfriend Freeze to Death

A Michigan man was sentenced Monday to 19 years and five months in prison for leaving his drunken girlfriend on an unheated enclosed porch overnight in freezing temperatures, PEOPLE confirms.

Charles Campbell Jr., 49, previously pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

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His girlfriend, 32-year-old Tamika Hurd, died on Feb. 22, 2014, after she came home drunk following a night out with her brother. A police investigation revealed that she showered, then went outside in temperatures between 24 and 27 degrees wearing only jeans and a short-sleeved T-shirt, Berrien Assistant Prosecutor Cortney O’Malley said in court. She froze to death after she couldn’t figure out how to get back in.

Campbell’s attorney, Jim Jesse, said that his client had helped his drunken girlfriend from the yard onto the home’s unheated enclosed porch before leaving her and noted that Hurd was responsible for her own intoxication.

“In hindsight, he would have gone out and gotten her. Every day he cries in jail,” Jesse said, according to The Herald-Palladium.

But O’Malley said that Campbell had yet to apologize for his actions. “I’m speaking on behalf of Tamika’s mother, [Evelyn Barnes],” O’Malley told Judge Pasula. “She’s had no apology from him. We’ve heard no regrets or remorse.”

In a video, recorded by Campbell himself, he can allegedly be heard “berating [Hurd] and belittling her” for getting drunk, O’Malley said. Campbell argued that he was helping her. “I’m sorry it happened, but I tried to help her,” Campbell told the court. “It hurts me.”

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Judge Angela Pasula disagreed. “You did not try to help her, on this occasion,” she told Campbell ahead of his sentencing, according to the The Herald-Palladium.

She added: “There’s a fine line between tough love and compassion. The victim was highly intoxicated and your failure to assist her may have risen to cruelty.”

Pasula sentenced him to nearly 20 years in prison.

Barnes told WWMT that’s she trying to forgive Campbell for his actions, but she’s having trouble.