A jury found Philip Grandine did not intend to kill his pregnant wife the night that she drowned — but on Friday a judge ruled that the former pastor and nurse was considering murdering his wife in the future.

In a scathing ruling, Superior Court Justice Robert Clark sentenced Grandine to serve 15 years in prison for deliberately drugging his wife Karissa and allowing her to take a bath while fully aware she risked death due to the effects of the powerful sedative.

“Although I cannot say with certainty what the accused’s purpose was in administering lorazepam to his wife on this particular occasion, I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that it was, in the least, deviant, malicious and … in furtherance of his contemplation of murdering her at some point,” Clark wrote in his 48-page ruling.

While the jury verdict was manslaughter, Clark found the facts of the case bring it close to first-degree murder:

Grandine, a 29-year-old retirement home nurse, had researched the effects of the sedative he used and weighed the likelihood of getting away with murder with Internet searches such as: “Where to buy lorazepam in Toronto,” “Would 100mg of Ativan be fatal,” and “autopsy,” searched together with “lorazepam” and “toxicology.”

He drugged Karissa twice, hospitalizing her the first time and then doing it again four days later on the night of Oct. 17, 2011, when she died. He knew that her getting into the bath after being drugged carried a foreseeable risk of death by drowning, the judge said.

He lied to police to divert suspicion from himself and, prior to his wife’s death, uninstalled the web filter she put on the home computer to block access to pornography sites.

He resented Karissa, whose discovery that he was having an affair resulted in his humiliating public resignation as a pastor for their church, and had a financial motive as the beneficiary of her life insurance policy.

His 911 call to report that his wife was unconscious in the bathtub “was nothing more than an elaborate charade” intended to make it seem like he was trying help her when he was not. His distress at being unable to get her out of the tub seemed “feigned and insincere,” Clark wrote in his ruling.

“Stand up,” Clark snapped to Grandine, seated in the prisoner’s box, before delivering the sentence.

Karissa Grandine was kind, generous and considerate — even to the woman who was having an affair with her husband, Clark said.

“She was beloved by everyone, except the one who should cherish her most. You. If you were unhappy, all you had to do was leave her.”

Grandine continued to betray Karissa’s trust by continuing his affair even after she found out, forgave him and they began marriage counselling.

“It is disgraceful but not criminal. What was criminal is giving her a powerful drug while she was carrying your child,” Clark said.

As Karissa’s sister clutched a photograph of her and wept, Clark said Grandine’s actions reached a “depth of depravity that beggars the imagination of any right-thinking person.”

And, as both Clark and Karissa’s mother, Maria Darvin, observed, Grandine has shown no remorse.

“I had expected a certain reaction,” Darvin said after the ruling, Karissa’s younger sister, Hannah Darvin, standing beside her.

“As a mother I cannot express the devastation and anguish that was brought about by this terrible act of violence. The horrendous actions of Mr. Philip Grandine have cost my daughter and grandchild their lives,” she said. “He disgraced the nursing profession, betrayed his vows and shattered our hopes.”

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The defence had argued the jury verdict suggests that they could not conclude it was Grandine who drugged his wife. The jury could have made their finding of manslaughter because Grandine neglected his duty as a spouse by allowing Karissa to get into the bathtub, Grandine’s defence lawyer, Amit Thakore, argued.

Clark firmly dismissed the theory that Karissa committed suicide.

“A measure of justice has been served,” Maria Darvin said before leaving the courthouse for the final time. “Even if the jury verdict fell far short of what the evidence indicates.”