LUDINGTON, MI – Sarah Renee Knysz, nine months pregnant and weeping, spoke at great length at her sentencing Tuesday, Dec. 10, about the life of terror she said she lived as the wife of a controlling, abusive Eric John Knysz.

Eric Knysz is charged with murdering Michigan State Police Trooper Paul K. Butterfield II. Sarah Knysz admitted helping him get away afterward.

One thing Sarah Knysz never mentioned in court: any expression of regret or apology to Butterfield’s family and loved ones, who were in the courtroom.

Butterfield’s fiancee, Jennifer Sielski, and his father, Paul T. Butterfield, had spoken a few minutes earlier about their grief and anger over the trooper’s death.

At the end of a hearing that lasted nearly two hours, Sarah Knysz, 20, of Luther was sentenced for her role in the aftermath of the younger Butterfield’s slaying.

Mason County 51st Circuit Judge Richard I. Cooper ordered her to state prison for between two and five years for accessory after the fact to a felony, and a concurrent 11 months for motor vehicle theft. She received credit for 92 days already served in the Mason County Jail.

Both sentences were at the top end of state sentencing guidelines. Both were requested by Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola.

Sarah Knysz pleaded guilty as charged to both counts Nov. 5 and agreed to testify against her husband.

Eric Knysz is charged in Mason County with murder of a peace officer, felony firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and motor vehicle theft. He is scheduled for a nine-day trial starting Feb. 18, 2014.

Eric Knysz earlier admitted shooting Butterfield in the head after Butterfield pulled the couple over in a traffic stop around 6:30 p.m. Sept. 9 near Custer in Mason County, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit released earlier. He allegedly admitted using a .357 magnum he had stolen from his father.

At her guilty plea last month, Sarah Knysz described in detail her version of what happened that night.

As for her part after the killing, last month she admitted erasing her cell-phone memory and removing its memory card and battery so they couldn’t be tracked; running into the house of Eric’s mother, Tammi Spofford, in Irons to get her to come with them so they could steal a car while Spofford took the pickup they were in when Butterfield was shot; staying behind with Spofford at the pickup while Eric left for about five minutes to steal a car; and transferring property from the pickup into the stolen car before getting in and leaving with her husband. She was in stores twice that evening and didn’t seek help, according to Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola.

“She was clearly an active participant after the fact in the murder of Trooper Paul Butterfield,” Spaniola said.

All of that, Sarah Knysz said in court, was out of fear of her husband.

“There wasn’t anything that I thought I could have done that day,” she said tearfully. “He had a gun and he shot the trooper, and if he did that, what was he going to do to a witness that was going to tell on him and was going to turn him in? I just wanted to keep me and my baby safe. I was just thinking about my baby. ...

“But I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I didn’t have control over it happening,” Knysz said.

Earlier, the slain trooper’s fiancee and father spoke emotionally of their loss.

Paul T. Butterfield began by walking over to the defense table and holding out to a weeping Sarah a group photo that included his dead son. Her attorney took it.

“I have seen your tears,” Paul T. Butterfield said, addressing Sarah. “I believe your tears are not a result of sorrow for our son’s death, but because you got caught.

“By your actions and decisions on that day, you condoned the actions of your husband,” he said.

Choking back his own tears, Butterfield said, “The day my son was born was the happiest day of my life. ... I hope for the sake of (your) child that he or she is removed totally from your family and adopted (by a loving, stable family).”

Sielski, the slain trooper’s fiancee, often wept as she spoke of the man Paul K. Butterfield II was.

“I felt like the luckiest woman in the world,” she said. “He protected me when I needed to feel safe. He was my friend, my inspiration, my hero, my soulmate.

“On Sept. 9, 2013, I returned home from work, gave Paul a kiss and told Paul I loved him before he started his shift at 6 p.m., something I had done countless times,” she said. “But that time would be the last.

“Twenty minutes later, Paul lay on the road ... clinging to life ... as Eric and his wife, Sarah, fled toward freedom they were literally willing to kill for,” Sielski said.

According to earlier statements by Sarah Knysz, she and Eric were in his father's, John Knysz’s, pickup truck, returning to Irons where the father lived, after selling some guns in Ludington that Eric had taken from his father. Some guns were still in the car, illegal for Eric Knysz as a convicted felon.

At about 6:20 p.m., Butterfield pulled them over. The 43-year-old trooper reportedly walked to the driver’s window and started to say something like “How’s it going?” and Eric shot him before he could finish, Sarah testified. The trooper fell in the road, and they left.

At 6:23 p.m., a passing motorist called 911 to report finding Butterfield on the ground. Butterfield was airlifted to Munson Hospital in Traverse City, where he died.

Based on information Butterfield had relayed to dispatch about the vehicle he stopped, police began to seek Eric Knysz as the suspect. Police located the couple at the Dublin store at approximately 8:25 p.m. Eric Knysz allegedly pulled a gun when confronted by police and was shot in the leg.

Eric Knysz also faces charges in Manistee County of receiving and concealing a stolen firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, unlawful driving away of an automobile, assault with a dangerous weapon and felony firearm.

John S. Hausman covers courts, prisons, the environment and local government for MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at jhausman@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter.