The Pittsburgh dentist convicted of murdering his wife while on a safari in Zambia was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and 20 years for mail fraud.

Larry Rudolph was also ordered to pay back the nearly $4.9 million he received from Bianca Rudolph's life insurance policies and an extra at least $2 million in fines.

He will also owe millions more in forfeiture fines, but that amount was unclear at his sentencing Monday.

Rudolph, 68, had claimed his wife's death was an accident and even took the stand in his defense last summer to bring home that fact to the jury, but the panel didn't buy his testimony. He was convicted of murder and mail fraud Aug. 1, 2023.

Rudolph was arrested in Mexico by the FBI December 2021, more than five years after Bianca Rudolph's death.

Rudolph, 57, died of a gunshot wound to the heart on Oct. 11, 2016, as she was packing to catch a plane with her husband from a remote area of Zambia back to the United States. At first, Rudolph claimed that her death was suicide and then changed his story, telling investigators that his wife accidentally shot herself as she was loading a four-foot-long rifle into its case.

Looking frail a year after his conviction, Rudolph, unshackled, sans handcuffs and dressed in a brown prison outfit, insisted that his wife's death was a tragic accident.

"This was not a murder but a horrible moment in time," he said, insisting that he and his wife of three years were happy when she died.

Rudolph appeared disoriented during his sentencing and it was relayed to the courtroom that he has been suffering from a heart condition.

His attorney, David Markus, had to direct him to turn around when he was being sworn in and Rudolph then appeared confused, addressing the female court clerk as “sir.”

Before his trial, Rudolph claimed to be worth $27 million. Prosecutors said it was all about the money.

"Wealth enabled him to commit this crime," said federal prosecutor Bryan Fields.

The prosecution's only witness Monday was Tyson Polski, a financial investigator with the U.S. Attorney's office. For hours, Polski explained spread sheets of evidence he compiled showing Rudolph's five-year shell game as he shuffled Bianca Rudolph's life insurance money payed out by five different companies into multiple Vanguard accounts.

Part of the insurance money fortune went to pay for a $1.4 million Pittsburgh home for Rudolph's mistress, Lori Milliron. Rudolph and his former office manager had a multi-year affair. They moved in together in an upscale Paradise, Arizona home, which Rudolph bought after his wife died, also in part with the life insurance money.

Polski also showed the payout-paper trail which indicated that part of the money went to buy two luxury cars and a condo in Cabo San Luis, Mexico.

Milliron also received jail time for her part in the crime. In June, she was sentenced to 17 years in prison for perjury, of being an accessory to a murder after the fact and obstructing a grand jury.

U.S. District Judge William Martinez seemed confounded by Rudolph's behavior, calling it "bizarre."

"You could have gotten a divorce but you wouldn't have had the insurance proceeds," said Martinez, noting that Rudolph started looking into collecting on his wife's life insurance policies three days after he returned to the United States.

He ordered the nearly $4.9 million in restitution to go to the insurance companies which paid out on Bianca Rudolph's multiple life insurance policies.

The Rudolph children did not attend the sentencing, bowing out at the last minute. Their uncle, and Bianca Rudolph's older brother, Vincent Finizio, was the only family member in the courtroom and the only one who was present for every day of trial.

Overcome with emotion, Finizio directed his court statement to Rudolph, who listened with a grim stare.

"You shot my sister in her heart at point blank range," said Finizio, apologizing at times for having to pause in mid-sentence. "None of us want to see you ever again...or breathe the same air."

Rudolph was tried in Colorado because the insurance companies involved in the case were mostly headquartered in Colorado.