Paul Caneiro was sentenced Monday in Freehold, New Jersey, to spend the rest of his life in prison for the killings of four members of his family, including two children. He had been convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and aggravated arson in the deaths of Keith Caneiro, Jennifer Caneiro, Jesse Caneiro and Sophia Caneiro.

Judge Marc Lemieux said Caneiro was “a manipulative, cold-blooded killer who destroyed every life around him in a ruthless effort to preserve his own.” The judge said Sophia, 8, was stabbed more than 40 times, with a wound that pierced her chest cavity and collapsed her lung. Prosecutors said Keith, 50, was shot to death on his front lawn at least five times, including a contact wound to the head. Jennifer, 45, was found shot inside the home and then stabbed.

The sentencing brought a grim close to a case that has haunted the Caneiro family for seven and a half years, since the killings happened two days before Thanksgiving. Bonnie Karidis told the court that “an entire branch of our family was erased seven and a half years ago, two days before Thanksgiving,” while Jennifer Caneiro’s mother said the defendant had “slaughtered” her family and “stole the source of joy and happiness in our lives and replaced it with bottomless sadness, sorrow and grief.”

Prosecutors said the violence began with money. They argued that Keith Caneiro confronted Paul Caneiro the day before the murders about missing money from business accounts, and said that gave him a financial motive to kill his brother. They also said Caneiro set fire to his brother’s home and then returned to his own house and started a fire there as well. The two children, prosecutors said, were stabbed and were still alive when the house burned down around them.

The defense maintained Caneiro’s innocence and suggested that his other brother, Corey Caneiro, may have been involved. Prosecutors said there was no evidence to support that claim. Monika Mastellone, his defense attorney, said he “maintains his innocence and has nothing further to add at this time.”

The final statements in court underscored how thoroughly the case split a family apart. Nicole Wallace said Corey “lost his brother that day, his sister-in-law, his niece and his nephew,” and added that Caneiro had accused Corey of being responsible for the killings. On Monday, the judge’s sentence settled the legal question, not the emotional one: Paul Caneiro will die in prison for the murders prosecutors said were driven by greed and carried out with exceptional brutality.