A Long Island mom who hatched a diabolical plot to bump off her husband using a hit man was slapped with the maximum sentence yesterday — despite an outpouring of support from her four children.

“She didn’t want a divorce by consent decree, she wanted a divorce by murder,” said stern Nassau County Judge Norman St. George before handing Susan Williams 8 years and 4 months to 25 years for the foiled scheme to kill her estranged husband.

During the emotional hearing, Williams’ 20 year-old daughter Alexis, a student at Fordham University, wept and clutched a set of rosary beads.

“Although what she has done has turned the lives of my siblings and me upside down, we know that the monster described by the district attorney is not our mother,” she wrote to St. George.

Susan Williams, her black and gray hair wrapped tight in a bun — a far cry from the stunning coif she sported in her mug shot — wept as she whined for mercy. Her lawyer, John Carman, had to wipe her tears because she was handcuffed.

“I would like to apologize to my parents and my children,” Williams said — glaringly omitting any apology to her husband. “I would like to explain how I came to be sitting here today, but I can’t. I have no explanation.”

St. George was not swayed by Williams’ tears or the children’s letters — noting that she forged her husband’s signature on a life-insurance policy that would have paid her $1 million if the fencing-company owner died.

“She ensured she would receive a windfall in insurance money,” St. George said. “She began to practice her acting so she would appear shocked when told about her husband’s death.

“As far as the defendant knew, her husband was set to be killed, and she grinned and giggled at the prospect of his death,” he added, noting that Williams has never shown any remorse for her crime.

Susan, 44, and her husband, Peter, 46, who lived in Garden City, were in the midst of a bitter breakup in March when she approached a man she thought was an assassin. But the gun for hire in the bargain-basement $20,000 plot was actually an undercover Nassau County cop.

Williams’ other daughter, Christine, 19, a student at Providence College, gushed about her mother being “so patient, kind and understanding.”

“I’m not looking for sympathy or asking to lower her sentence,” she wrote. “I’m simply asking you to put yourself in my shoes, to look at the bigger picture of a mistake a mother made.

“Her punishment is our punishment. I feel as if I am in jail with her.”

Her son, Ryan, 16, said: “Every day I feel like I am dying without her . . . I miss her so much and I need her back in my life.”

And Williams’ youngest, Jack, 11, made a gut-wrenching appeal. “I don’t understand why I am not allowed to see my mom,” he wrote. “She doesn’t deserve to be in jail. She’s the best mom anyone could ask for.”

Williams made up nasty accusations against her husband during the divorce proceedings.

She accused of him abusing her and the kids and forcing her to have deviate sex.

In stunning surveillance footage, Williams can be seen forking over a $500 down payment on the hit and cackling with the cop about getting caught.

“If you’re taping me I’m f–ked, if that’s the case,” she laughed.

kieran.crowley@nypost.com

