Rosario DiGirolamo must serve 85 percent of his term before he'll be eligible for parole. He admitted killing 27-year-old Amy Giordano of Hightstown in June 2007 and dumping her dismembered body in a New York pond.
Judge Edward Neafsey called the crime "ghastly."
DiGirolamo's lawyers said a Google search for murder methods was a key factor in their client's decision to plead guilty last month.
Evidence showed DiGirolamo had searched the phrase "lethal karate blows to the back of the head" days before the killing.
Defense attorney Jerome Ballarotto said the search evidence was "catastrophic."
DiGirolamo said next to nothing at his sentencing, but he has admitted killing Giordano with a hammer at a Hightsown apartment, chopping her up with a saw and dumping parts of the body in a pond in New York. He then abandoned their 11 month old child in the parking lot of a Delaware hospital.
His lawyer says DiGirolamo did all that but failed to get help because he had an anxiety attack after their altercation.
"He just panicked, probably collapsed in a ball. He was just incapacitated as a result of what happened," said attorney Jerome Ballarott.
The judge wasn't buying it.
"Panic would not lead to dismembering Ms. Giordano, clearing the apartment of evidence and, most of all, disposing of the victim's body so that all the parts of her body have yet to be found," said Judge Neafsey
DiGirolamo must serve at least 21 years of his 25 year sentence before he's eligible for parole.
