Man who killed wife and hid her body for years sentenced to 25 years in prison

A 35-year-old man, who admitted to killing his wife with a hammer in 2015, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison, the Delaware Attorney General's Office said on Friday.  

Cortez Hamilton's sentence comes nearly three months after he pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of 35-year-old Keisha Hamilton. The plea also allowed authorities to find the remains of his wife, who had not been seen since 2015.

Keisha Hamilton, of the Twin Willows development near Smyrna, went missing in early January 2015. A search of the Hamiltons' home showed a large amount of blood in an upstairs hallway.

Cortez Hamilton fled to Indiana with the couple's two young children, Colette, then 4, and a then-infant Cortez Jr. That's where Indiana State Police arrested him a few weeks later after a nationwide Amber Alert.

Four days after Hamilton was extradited to Delaware, friends and relatives of his wife joined state police and a crowd of about 400 people as they searched soggy fields and forest land south of Smyrna. They spent hours searching on foot, horseback and all-terrain vehicle, but found no sign of the missing woman.

In his April 2015 indictment, prosecutors said Hamilton used a hammer to kill his wife. But it wasn't until his murder trial neared this year that the public learned where his wife's remains were. 

A condition of his Jan. 19 plea was that he tell authorities the location of Keisha Hamilton's body.

Later that day, police announced that skeletal remains had been discovered off Mount Friendship Road. The remains were less than 5 miles from the couple's home. 

After his prison term ends, Hamilton will serve one year of work release, followed by two years of probation.

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.