SEATTLE -- A woman who pleaded guilty in the murder-for-hire killing of her husband will spend 22 years in prison, a judge ruled Thursday.

Velma Ogden-Whitehead, 50, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree murder in the death of her husband, Ronald Whitehead, a Boeing worker who was fatally shot in 2005.

During her sentencing, Ogden-Whitehead expressed regret for her husband's murder but also accused him of emotionally, physically and sexually abusing her.

"I deeply regret taking matters into my own hands instead of letting police and the court sort out the mess between my husband and I," she said.

Her allegations were never supported by police reports or witnesses.

Ogden-Whitehead said she only knew about a plan to rob him and was not aware he would be killed.

A trial for the alleged hit man, Wilson Sayachack, ended in April in a mistrial after detectives investigating an unrelated drug case found a gun in a Puyallup home. Authorities said the gun was the one used to kill Whitehead, 61.

Whitehead was driving to his job at a Boeing facility in Bellevue when he was fatally shot at an intersection near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on March 18, 2005.

At the time, witnesses told investigators they saw him being pushed from the 2000 Mustang by a man who then sped off in the vehicle. Police at first said it appeared the case was a carjacking.

Two days later, the car was located roughly three miles south of where Whitehead was killed.

According to court documents prepared by the prosecutor's office, Sayachack hid in the trunk of Whitehead's car, climbed through the folding back seat and shot Whitehead in the back of the head. Police said Ogden-Whitehead's son was also involved in the murder plot.

Police said that Whitehead's wife paid Sayachack $1,000 for the killing, according to the court papers.