Tetso gets 18 year prison sentence for wife's murder

TOWSON, Md. - Dennis Tetso, convicted last month of his wife Tracey Tetso's murder, received an 18 year prison sentence this morning in a Towson courthouse.

Last month Dennis Tetso was found guilty by a Baltimore County jury after days of deliberation.

Tears and hugs outside of a Towson courtroom Friday afternoon. The family of Tracey Tetso has waited more than five years for this day. Her husband Dennis Tetso was found guilty of second degree murder.

“I think he's a coward. I think he's a coward," said Cathy Gardner, Tracey’s mother.

On March 6, 2005, Tracey was headed to a Motley Crue concert in Washington, but she never made it there. Surveillance video of someone dropping her car off at a Days Inn lot in Glen Burnie surfaced.

The picture is too distorted to tell if it's Tracey, but prosecutors argued it's too tall to be her. Three hours of telephone conversation were played for jurors, who were told to disregard the truth of what people were saying and instead consider their state of mind.

"In those calls there are a lot of arguments between a husband and a wife and a bad marriage. And so there was lots of name calling, there was lots of cursing. It just made my guy look like a bad guy."

Prosecutors argued Dennis Tetso knew his wife was going to divorce him and that she was seeing other men. He refused to help search for her, ripped down missing persons’ fliers from her home and moved back into her house in the weeks following her disappearance.

Dennis Tetso was arrested in 2009.

"If he didn't have something to hide, you would have been out there pounding the streets yourself," said Gardner.

The state's case lacked Tetso's body and investigators never found any evidence such as blood or DNA to prove that Tracey was murdered.

That's enough, according to the Dennis Tetso's attorney to file an appeal.

“There was a lot of what I consider prejudicial and inflammatory evidence that the state, who did a very good job prosecuting the case, got as evidence," said David Irwin, defense attorney.

Dennis Tetso is scheduled to be sentenced November 23.