Sigfredo Garcia. (Photo : Broward Sheriff's Office)

Sigfredo Garcia will spend the remainder of his life in prison for the 2014 murder of Florida State University law professor Dan Markel.

A Tallahassee jury deliberated for 40 minutes before recommending a life sentence over the death penalty—the only other option available after they found him guilty of first-degree murder Oct. 11. Judge James Hankinson of the Second Circuit Court of Florida followed the jury's recommendation and officially handed down a life sentence for the first-degree murder conviction, as well as a 30-year sentence for conspiracy to commit murder, to be served consecutively with the life sentence. Garcia will not be eligible for parole.

Garcia appeared relieved when the jury delivered its recommendation. Deputy assistant state attorney Georgia Cappleman told the jury in her closing arguments during sentencing that the death penalty is appropriate because Garcia had ample time to reconsider his role in Markel's murder, which was in the works for well over a month before it happened.

"There is no evidence that this defendant's role in the crime was minor or he was merely an accomplice," she said in court. "All the evidence indicates he was the one that pulled the trigger."

But Garcia's attorney, Saam Zangeneh, used his closing argument to urge the jury to consider mitigating factors surrounding Garcia's involvement in the murder.

"Sigfredo was under the influence of extreme emotional or mental disturbance," said Zangeneh, noting that his longtime partner and mother of his two children, Katherine Magbanua, had recently broken up with him. "Everyone indicated that he was spiraling out of control because of his breakup with Katherine Magbanua."

Garcia didn't implicate Magbanua at trial because he wanted to protect her, Zangeneh told the jury.

Garcia was tried for murder alongside Magbanua, who prosecutors alleged helped set up the murder-for-hire that left Markel dead in July 2014. But the jury could not reach a decision on the first-degree murder charge against Magbanua, and Hankinson declared a mistrial. State prosecutors have said they will retry her, and she remains in jail.

For three weeks, prosecutors laid out the case that Charlie and Donna Adelson—the brother and mother of Markel's ex-wife, Wendi Adelson—were behind the plot to kill Markel in an effort to allow the couple's two children to relocate from Tallahassee to South Florida, where the Adelson family lives. No member of the Adelson family has been charged, and they have steadfastly denied any involvement.

Prosecutors alleged that Magbanua, who dated Charlie Adelson prior to the murder, recruited Garcia and Luis Rivera—a high ranking member of the Latin Kings gang—to travel to Tallahassee to kill Markel, for which the trio was paid $100,000. Rivera pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016 and testified in court that Garcia pulled the trigger and Magbanua set it in motion.

Markel's mother, Ruth Markel, read a statement to the jury during sentencing Monday, detailing how the death of her son has altered her life.

"There's no word in the English language for someone who loses a child," Markel said in court. "Yet because of the acts of a few, our son Dan's life was cut short and we were forced to live with the unthinkable."

Garcia's defense team spent the sentencing phase laying out their client's hardscrabble upbringing, in which his father was largely absent and money was tight. Psychologist Julie Harper testified that Magbanua appeared to wield considerable control over Garcia, and that she often pressured him to provide more money to her and their children.