A Suffolk man was sentenced on Wednesday to 39 years in prison for the stabbing death of his wife nearly a year ago.

An autopsy revealed Darren M. Moseley, now 33, stabbed Cathy Moseley 42 times last October. Other evidence showed he enlisted the help of a mentally disabled friend to clean up the crime scene. The two then drove to Isle of Wight County with her body, doused it with gasoline and were getting ready to set it on fire when they were interrupted by a dog barking in the distance. Her body was found Oct. 27, 2009.

Moseley, dressed in a yellow jail jumpsuit with the words “Jesus Christ” handwritten on the back below the collar, apologized first to the court, then to his children, then to his wife’s family during a statement Wednesday.

“I’m very sorry and remorseful for all the pain and sorrow they have experienced,” Moseley said. “It’s a loss for me as well. My heart goes out to them. I continue to pray for them every night.”

Despite the apology, prosecutor Jim Wiser said Moseley has demonstrated “a remarkable lack of remorse” in the months following the crime. He pointed out that during an interview with a detective, Moseley first said his wife was gone one night when he got back from the store. He then changed his story, inventing what Wiser called a “fanciful argument” that he was in the bathroom at home when his wife and a man came in with knives and started attacking him.

Moseley’s defense attorney attempted to bring up his clean criminal record as a mitigating factor, but Wiser indicated Cathy Moseley’s mother has said there was a history of abuse in the marriage.

“I don’t think there’s any mitigation of first-degree murder,” Wiser said.

Moseley’s 39-year sentence was the result of a plea agreement struck so that the family would not have to suffer through a trial — a point Judge Carl Eason Jr. said was the only reason he agreed to the deal.

“This was a grotesquely brutal attack,” Eason said, adding he likely would have imposed a life sentence were it not for the agreement. “Forty-two times, you stabbed her.”

Moseley was charged with first-degree murder, shoot or stab in the commission of a felony and concealment of a body. He also was ordered to pay $5,000 restitution for his wife’s funeral and to have no contact with her family.