AceShowbiz - DJ Khaled's wife Nicole Tuck urged a New York judge to deliver her late brother's murderer a harsh sentence as a verdict was reached on Wednesday, December 11.

Tuck's brother Jonathan was shot in the face last year when Richard Jimenez and four others burst into a drug dealer's apartment intent on robbing the place, when the star's sibling was there to buy a small quantity of marijuana. He apparently 'pistol-whipped' the 25-year-old, but accidentally pulled the trigger, killing him.

The robbers left him to die, stealing just $100 (£76) from the dealer and, in a letter to federal judge Eguardo Ramos, she encouraged the legal authorities to deal Jimenez a harsh blow.

"A life for a life," she penned, reported the New York Post's gossip column Page Six. "We do not agree to any leniency in sentencing."

The 44-year-old's letter was read into the record by a family representative, as Tuck was unable to attend the sentencing "because I am eight-months pregnant." She added her parents weren't there because it's still too painful.

"We do not ever want to see the face of the person who took our loved one away," she insisted.

Jimenez, now 22, sobbed uncontrollably Wednesday as he apologised to Tuck's absent family, confessing: "I would do anything, anything to bring him back, the guilt and pain is eating me alive."

"Sorry to everybody, I'm sorry," he cried.

Before imposing the sentence, the judge ripped into Jimenez, saying: "To think a life was lost in connection with this completely preposterous robbery makes it all the more tragic."

Jimenez was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. The crime's accused mastermind, Luis Semiday, is still facing trial.