A former pastor was sentenced to 20 years in prison today for helping his girlfriend kill her husband in 2015.

Jeffery David Brown, 37, was sentenced Monday morning in front of Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tommy Nail. His former girlfriend, Cindy Kaye Henderson Reese, was found guilty in her murder trial earlier this month.

Brown was originally charged with murder, but he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter earlier this year just before his trial was set to begin. In his plea agreement, Brown agreed to the 20-year sentence and to testify against Reese.

Brown said during his testimony that Reese wanted him to hire someone to kill her husband Michael. Brown attempted to hire two of his co-workers for the killing, but they refused. Brown also said Reese talked about killing Michael on multiple occasions, and said she would claim insanity if she was charged in his death.

Brown claimed that after Reese shot Michael, she gave Brown a gun and jewelry she had taken from the home and told him to get rid of it. He said he dumped the 38 revolver on Highway 75 in Pinson and gave the jewelry to another woman.

When Reese took the stand, she said Brown was an obsessed lover who became angry when Reese refused to divorce Michael. She claimed that she had never discussed killing Michael, and said her sexual relationship with Brown had ended weeks before the shooting.

Michael was shot in the couple's Morris home on February 18, 2015. He and his wife went to church earlier in the evening and had just returned home from Milo's when Michael was killed.

According to the prosecution, Reese shot her husband in the back of the head when the couple arrived home. She then went to Piggly Wiggly, bought groceries, and called police when she returned to the Banks Street home. Reese flipped the coffee table upside down and staged the house to look like there had been a robbery.

Reese's attorney John Robbins said Brown shot Michael after hiding in the Reese home for almost an hour, waiting on them to return from church.

A jury found Reese guilty after 90 minutes of deliberating.

Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 11.