TRENTON - When two-time convicted killer Edna White was wheeled out of a Mercer County courtroom Thursday after receiving a 12 year prison sentence for aggravated manslaughter, she had one last request.

Edna White

"Tell my daughter I love her," White said to the largely empty room.

That marked the end to two years of legal proceedings that White's attorney, Patrick O'Hara Jr., later labeled a "sad case."

White, 58, appeared in criminal court in Mercer County Thursday for using a 10-inch knife to stab her ex-boyfriend, 55-year-old Dwelle Jerome Clark to death in February of 2014.

White killed a man in 1980 as well.

She was initially charged with murder but pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter last year - a charge that carries the maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, O'Hara said.

On Thursday, Judge Robert Billmeier decided to issue White less than half that. She was given a 12-year prison sentence for the killing with the two years she's served in jail since her 2014 arrest counting toward that sentence, Billmeier said.

It was the second time White has been sentenced in the killing of a boyfriend after she stabbed another man to death in 1980. She was released after five years in prison for the first stabbing. Now, she will need to serve nearly twice that for the 2014 stabbing, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office.

Though O'Hara was looking for a 10-year sentence in the most recent stabbing, he said Thursday that Billmeier's decision was a just one.

"It's a sad case and I think the state did a good job," O'Hara said, referring to White's past, which involves drug addiction, allegations of domestic abuse and - most prominently - her previous conviction for killing a boyfriend.

White addressed the court Thursday, discussing her version of events.

"It was over $20 from his mom," White said Thursday. She recalled how she was getting ready for church the morning of the killing at Clark's mother's house where she lived. Clark, a former boyfriend of hers whom she had not seen for years came into the room and she quickly hid his mother's wallet under the bed, she said.

ALSO: Woman indicted on charges she stabbed ex boyfriend to death

"Years ago he used to beat me," White claimed, adding that when she moved the wallet, Clark hit her. She said she climbed to her feet and grabbed the knife, "to scare him," but ended up killing him.

O'Hara said in addition to being an ex-boyfriend, Clark was the father of White's 40-year-old daughter who did not appear for her mother's sentencing in court Thursday.

Billmeier discussed the 2014 stabbing but also heavily focused on White's personal history while making his decision.

He specifically emphasized White's prior murder case over 30 years ago.

Billmeier said he did not know the details of the 1980 killing but that White had been convicted and served prison time for stabbing a boyfriend.

"You'd think.... She would know the consequences of stabbing someone," Billemeier said.

After White was released she struggled with addictions to alcohol and crack-cocaine as well as mental health issues, Billmeier said.

A stroke in 2014 made it hard for her to walk and resigned her to a wheelchair. That, along with her addictions and mental health problems factored into Billmeier's decision, he said.

But White also had run-ins with the law on numerous occasions - something that worked against her. Billmeier said that White has been arrested 21 times and convicted of two separate counts of theft and one count of burglary.

It was the prior convictions that led Billmeier to align more with the prosecutors, who were asking for a 13 year prison sentence.

"Had this been (White's) first homicide I would agree with Mr. O'Hara," Billmeier said after sentencing White to 12 years in prison - two years more than O'Hara asked for. White will be eligible for parole in March of 2026.

"I just want to get on with my life and do the time," White said Thursday.

Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.