“I wasn’t a monster...I was good to my husband to the end.”

So said Yvonne Cortis, sentenced Wednesday to 22-50 years in prison for murdering her husband, Gregory Cortis, who died from injuries suffered in a brutal beating Nov. 30, 2015 in their Milford Township home.

Soon after her arrest, Cortis reportedly told authorities she attacked her husband – who had suffered several strokes – “to put him out of his misery.” She repeatedly struck him with a metal rod, moments after doing the same to their labrador who she said was ill and needed to be put down, but her husband had refused to do so. The dog died several weeks later from an unrelated medical condition. Cortis was also sentenced 2-4 years for animal torture in the dog’s beating.

Cortis pleaded guilty to both charges last month.

Addressing Oakland Circuit County Judge Cheryl Matthews at the sentencing hearing, Cortis, 60, offered a rambling statement that included a tearful apology for the attack of “a good man” who “never deserved any of this,” then flip-flopped with accusations that he was abusive and told lies about her.

“I tried my best to deal with the situation I was dealt with,” Cortis said.

But Matthews wasn’t buying it – telling Cortis that she had closely reviewed all facts in the case.

“There is not a scintilla of evidence to support your claim that you were a victim of anything at all,” Matthews said, “Not a scintilla. Zero.”

Prior to sentencing, Barbara Kotubey – Greg Cortis’ daughter from his first wife, who predeceased him – read a victim’s impact statement remembering her father as “kind and loving,” and who lived the motto “slowly but surely.” He had a positive attitude and was successfully adapting to the debilitating effects of the strokes, Kotubey said, discounting Yvonne Cortis’ claims.

“Despite his incapacities, he was not miserable as Yvonne said in regard to his murder,” Kotubey said.

Describing Yvonne Cortis as “a liar and master manipulator,” Kotubey said she “brought chaos, anger and violence” to the family.

“She chose to beat two beings who were loved...in our eyes, it was a predatory kill,” Kotubey said.

According to Cortis’ attorney, Jeffrey Quas. the murder happened when “she snapped. And to be perfectly honest, she just lost it.”