Damon Willie White was sentenced to life in prison without parole Tuesday for stabbing his ex-wife at least 103 times last year, killing the 37-year-old mother of four and then setting her Columbia apartment on fire.

"This is a horrible crime that requires an appropriate response," Howard County Circuit Court Judge Richard S. Bernhardt said at the sentencing hearing.

White was convicted in August on one count of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson in the death of Thelma Wynn. Bernhardt handed him a 30-year sentence, to be served consecutively after the murder sentence, on the arson charge.

"We think it's the appropriate sentence for a horrific crime," prosecutor James Dietrich said after the sentencing. "I think that 103 stab wounds shows an anger beyond any that would suggest that he isn't a danger to the community. Someone who would go to those lengths to hurt someone … should be punished appropriately."

Firefighters found Wynn's body on Sept. 7, 2010, in the master bedroom in her apartment on the 6000 block of Majors Lane, in Long Reach. White was unconscious on the floor of the dining room, bleeding from what rescuers determined to be self-inflicted wounds.

At Tuesday's hearing, prosecutors called as witnesses Wynn's mother, Vivian Lindsay, and the father of her two oldest children, Gregory Isaac Jr.

Isaac's older daughter with Wynn, who is 18, did not have her mother there to see her graduate from high school, Isaac said. Their younger daughter, 16, did not have her mother to celebrate the landmark birthday with her.

Isaac said he has also taken in the son that White and Wynn had, eight-year-old Shomari White. Shomari "asks me why did my daddy do that?" Isaac said. "I can't explain to him why, because I don't know."

White's public defenders, meanwhile, said White was remorseful despite having a limited recollection of what had happened. He had wanted to plead guilty before the trial, they said, but was told not to do so without a plea deal being offered.

White also spoke at the sentencing, his voice tremulous and difficult to hear. Looking out toward Wynn's family, he apologized, thanked Lindsay for her help and Isaac for raising Shomari.

"I had no intention of hurting anyone," White said. "I can only imagine what you all went through. … I wish I could turn back what transpired."