TROY – After working for more than 30 years with the city of Troy, Bill Chamberlain was thinking about retirement.

Chamberlain and his wife were making plans for life after he left his post as the city's director of operations, his wife remembered Friday morning.

"Bill was my best friend in life," Nancy Chamberlain said. "I lost my best friend. I miss him more and more every day."

She spoke in Rensselaer County Court as a judge was preparing to sentence the man who killed her husband, Joseph Vandenburgh, to decades in prison.

The 29-year-old Vandenburgh, a burly, bearded man, convicted June 30 of second-degree murder and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, stayed silent during his sentencing. Vandenburgh stabbed Chamberlain, 56, at least 25 times after he ambushed just blocks from Chamberlain's home during the week before Christmas 2015.

During the trial, Nancy Chamberlain described searching for her husband when he did not return from walking the dog, Otis. She found him down the street, already dead.

Judge Debra Young tore into Vandenburgh, "The crime was an act of pure evil," she said before ordering Vandenburgh to serve 25 years to life in prison.

The Rensselaer County Court House ceremonial courtroom was filled with Chamberlain's family and friends. Young told the crowd that she rarely commented when she sentenced a criminal, but this case was an exception.

"He is the definition of a sick, twisted psychopath who has shown zero remorse," Chamberlain's son, Patrick, told the judge.

Vandenburgh has "no heart, no soul, no remorse," District Attorney Joel Abelove said.

Nancy Chamberlain testified how on the night of Dec. 17, 2015 the family's dog Otis returned home without her husband. She scoured the neighborhood searching for him, only to find him a few doors way down the street dead in a pool of blood.

Vandenburgh's attack that night, a week before Christmas 2015, destroyed that future the couple planned together. In addition to the pain, she said she's suffered financial setbacks since her husband's death and must sell the family's Wynantskill home.

Vandenburgh was out on parole from a nine-year prison sentence for burglary when he encountered Chamberlain on the street. Patrick Chamberlain criticized the state for allowing Vandenburg out on the street on parole.

He also turned his attention to defense attorney Danielle Neroni and to Vandenburgh's mother Toni Vandenburgh, vigorously condemning them for their court appearances on behalf of Joseph Vandenburgh.

Part of the defense case raised the question of whether Patrick Chamberlain should have been more closely investigated as a suspect in his father's killing.

Outside the courtroom, Toni Vandenburgh didn't respond to a request for comment about Chamberlain's remarks.