OAKLAND (BCN)—A locksmith was convicted of second-degree murder today for killing his wife at their home in Oakland’s Montclair district two years ago by brutally smashing her head into a stairway more than a dozen times.

Jurors only deliberated for four hours before reaching their verdict against Joseph Bontempo, 55, for the death of Laurie Wolfe, 57, at their home in the 6700 block of Saroni Drive on July 6, 2014.

Bontempo, who looked straight ahead and reacted calmly when the verdict was announced, faces a term of 15 years to life in state prison when he’s sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman on Nov. 15.

Bontempo and his lawyers previously claimed that he loved Wolfe so much that he couldn’t have killed her. But defense attorney Palden Ukyab, who has represented Bontempo for about a year, admitted in his closing argument on Tuesday that Bontempo killed her but said he should only be convicted of manslaughter, not murder.

Ukyab said Bontempo killed Wolfe in a “brutal” manner in the heat of passion because he finally snapped after what he said was a bad marriage that he described as “a cauldron.”

Ukyab said Bontempo and Wolfe had been together for 23 years, including 12 years of marriage, but Wolfe was emotionally closer to veterinarian Dr. Brent Martin, who was a former flame who had wanted to marry her.

Wolfe was dead when paramedics arrived at the couple’s home in a quiet residential area shortly after Bontempo called 911 at 6:30 p.m. on July 6, 2014, and said she had accidentally fallen down a flight of stairs.

But prosecutor Laura Passaglia said the paramedics who came to the house immediately were suspicious of Bontempo’s story because there was blood on the walls and carpet next to the stairs and it appeared that Wolfe had been dead for several hours.

Passaglia said investigators found Bontempo’s DNA underneath Wolfe’s fingernails, which she said shows that Wolfe was fighting back to try to save her life after he attacked her.

Passaglia said the evidence in the case indicates that Bontempo bashed her head with force about 16 times “into the very hard and sharp stairs,” which were displayed in court during his trial.

Pathologist Dr. Thomas Rogers ruled that Wolfe’s death wasn’t an accident and instead was caused by multiple blunt injuries to her central nervous system, ribs and fingers.

Passaglia said Bontempo should be convicted of murder, saying, “There’s no evidence that shows that Laurie did anything to provoke her own death.”

The prosecutor said no evidence was presented that Bontempo had a negative view of Wolfe and even if the couple’s marriage was as bad as Ukyab said it was, the appropriate solution for Bontempo would have been to divorce her, not to kill her.

Passaglia argued that a verdict of either first-degree or second-degree murder would be appropriate for Bontempo and said today that she’s happy with the second-degree murder verdict.

A friend of Wolfe’s who was a maintenance supervisor for a company that did business for her company said he thinks Bontempo should have been convicted of first-degree murder “because he bashed her head into the stairs 16 times.”