Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

A Williamston man convicted of torture and domestic violence, leading up to his wife's suspicious drug overdose four years ago, is sentenced to between 40 and 80 years in prison.

Christopher Palazzolo, 44, previously admitted to causing injuries found on his wife Elise's body after she died in the couple's apartment in 2021.

"You knew she took those drugs," Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said during Wednesday's sentencing hearing.

"You have a duty, an elevated duty, as a husband to protect her, to help her, to dial 9-1-1 and you did nothing. If you didn't want to call 9-1-1, you call her parents, you call her sister. Hundreds of people in the community would have come to your door and helped you. You could've made a phone all, what do I do? I'm sure the answer would have been call 9-1-1. But you didn't do that. You didn't care. You watched her slowly die."

Palazzolo's defense centered around a "waiver" or "consent" form, allegedly prepared by Elise, giving him permission to physically discipline her for lying.