A man who killed his ex-girlfriend was sentenced 35 to 70 years in prison. Her family says he deserved life.

A Philadelphia man who terrorized his ex-girlfriend for weeks before fatally shooting her as she walked to work was sentenced Monday to 35 to 70 years in prison — a case the young woman’s friends and family said has brought them irreparable harm.

Marcus Burney, 42, pleaded guilty on Monday to third-degree murder, illegal gun possession, and related offenses after he shot and killed 20-year-old Sahmya Garcia in November.

Burney had been stalking Garcia for weeks after she ended their relationship, according to Garcia’s roommate. He had assaulted her, and after she left the relationship, Burney would drive around their South Philadelphia neighborhood searching for her. One November morning, after he found out where she was living, he threw a cinder block through the glass front-door of their rowhouse. He threatened her and himself multiple times.

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Two days later, Burney killed her at the corner of Broad and Ellsworth Streets.

Shortly before 8 a.m. on Nov. 8 — just moments after police unsuccessfully tried to serve Garcia’s protection from abuse order to Burney — he spotted her as she walked to work. He got out of his truck and shot her 10 times with a ghost gun.

On Monday, Common Pleas Court Judge Giovanni Campbell sentenced Burney to 35 to 70 years in prison as part of a plea agreement Burney reached with prosecutors. The deal spared Burney the automatic life sentence he would have received if convicted of first-degree murder at trial, but Campbell nonetheless imposed the maximum sentence for third-degree murder at 20 to 40 years, plus additional time for the illegal gun possession charges.

Still, Garcia’s family said they were disappointed to learn Burney may one day be eligible for parole.

“I don’t think justice was served today,” said the woman’s father, Hector Garcia. “What was done today was an accommodation to the judicial system.”

He was aware that prosecutors had negotiated a plea deal, but said he was disappointed, considering the circumstances of his daughter’s death.

“You planned this out. You looked for her for days before you killed her,” said Roseann Morrison, as if speaking to her daughter’s killer. “I don’t think he deserved anything less than life.”

Burney’s lawyer, Edward Meehan, declined to comment.

“Our hearts go out to the family of Sahmya Garcia. Even though this is the maximum sentence this defendant could receive for third degree murder, there is no sentence that can restore their terrible loss,” a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Garcia was born and raised in South Jersey. She was the third-oldest in a blended family of eight children, and had survived leukemia as a child, her father said.

She was bubbly and outgoing, and could make conversation with a stranger. She loved makeup and tended carefully to her appearance. At the time of her killing, she was working at the Target on Broad Street and Washington Avenue as a security guard.

Garcia met Burney about two years ago, while he was working as a bouncer at a Philadelphia club, a friend said, and she moved into his South Philadelphia home shortly after.

Garcia was private about her life, and her family and many friends were not aware of the abuse she suffered. But she confided in a friend at work, and told her that Burney had assaulted her and almost killed her in the past.

She eventually ended the relationship and, taking only what she could carry, moved in with a friend in South Philadelphia. But Burney’s violence escalated.

Garcia was hospitalized briefly from his abuse a few weeks before she was killed, and had sought help from Philadelphia police, but felt like they did not take her concerns seriously.

Monday’s guilty plea is just the latest in Burney’s long criminal record, which includes convictions for assault, carrying a gun without a license, and drug possession.

In 2017, he broke into the home of a former partner and punched her, and threatened to kill her, according to court records. The woman obtained a protection-from-abuse order, but Burney continued to stalk her, court records show.

Burney was later arrested for violating the order, according to the records. He pleaded guilty to defiant trespassing and making terroristic threats, and was sentenced to up to a year in prison, and at least two years’ probation.

Although he is prohibited from owning a gun, Burney later acquired a ghost gun — the largely unregulated and untraceable weapons that law enforcement officials say are flooding Philadelphia’s streets — which he used to shoot Garcia, according to city prosecutors.

Burney did not address Garcia’s loved ones in the court Monday, her father said.

But he was able to address him.

“I told him that I hope God has mercy on his soul,” he said. “He’s going to need it.”

Hector Garcia recalled how, at one point, Burney told the judge he understood he committed a terrible crime, but that he did not think he deserved to spend the rest of his days in a cell. And as Burney considered the plea deal, the judge allowed him to call his mother for advice on what to do, Garcia said.

“He got to call his mother,” Morrison said. “But my daughter never gets to call me ever again.”

Morrison said she did not have the strength to attend Monday’s hearing. She felt physically ill and as if her heart was going to explode, she said — a feeling that’s grown all-too-familiar since her daughter’s death.

But had she been there, she said, she would have told him this:

“I don’t know what kind of heart you have to be able to do that to a young girl. ... You released whatever anger from your life out on her. You’re an animal, and you have an ugly, dark heart.”