A Virginia man who slaughtered his father with an ax was sentenced last week to 30 years behind bars.

Frank Altimari, 32, murdered his father Nick Altimari, a former federal prosecutor, by striking him with an ax 43 times in November 2017. He was sentenced Friday by Chesterfield Circuit Judge David Johnson to 40 years with 30 suspended for second-degree murder and also was sentenced to 20 years with no time suspended for maliciously wounding his stepmother, Felipita Altimari, after he hit her with a car.

After running over both his stepmother and father with the car in their driveway, Frank Altimari exited the vehicle and proceeded to assault his father with a long-handled, double-bladed ax and struck him in the head, chest, and neck.

According to testimony, Frank Altimari conducted the massacre after he stopped receiving his medication. He told evaluators that he was convinced his employer, the government, or the military were monitoring him and that he and his father were endangered and could be tortured. As a result, his attorneys wanted him to undergo mental health treatment rather than face prison.

Clinical psychologist Evan Nelson evaluated Frank Altimari and concluded the University of Virginia graduate and former Capital One project manager was “not your typical” mental health patient. He argued that his father’s career as an assistant U.S. attorney motivated him to conceal his mental illness.

But Johnson determined prison was appropriate for Frank Altimari, after he delayed the sentencing to fully review the testimony provided at the sentencing hearing last month.

“This court finds the defendant’s detailed delusions that his father wanted a mercy killing by an ax is not reliably substantiated by the evidence,” Johnson said, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “If the defendant viewed his acts as a mercy killing, he extended very little mercy.”

“The defendant’s actions at the scene, intentionally running down Mr. and Mrs. Altimari with his car, striking his father 43 times with an ax, belies the contention that he was delusional at the time of the murder.”

Frank Altimari, who pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and malicious wounding, expressed remorse for his conduct and testified previously that “because of my actions, I lost my best friend.” He added that he recognizes failing to treat his mental illness caused it to “spiral out of control.”

His attorney, Ali Amirshahi, said the sentencing caught him off guard but cited the challenges of proving insanity in Virginia.

“Clearly, the judge gave a lot of thought and reviewed all the evidence before coming to this decision,” Amirshahi said. “I was surprised that the mental health evidence that was presented didn’t play a greater role in the decision; both experts testified that the only reason this occurred was mental illness, specifically psychosis.”

“But proving insanity is nearly impossible in Virginia,” he added. “We believed that mental health evidence as mitigation at sentencing was the best way to achieve a reasonable sentence.”