QUINCY (UPI) — A former Family Feud contestant who joked on the game show that his marriage was a mistake has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his estranged wife.
Tim Bliefnick, 40, of Quincy, on Friday was sentenced by Illinois Circuit Court Judge Robert Adrian to spend the remainder of his natural life in prison for breaking into the home of his wife, Rebecca Bliefnick, in February and shooting her to death.
Tim Bliefnick was convicted in June of murdering Rebecca Bliefnick.
“You researched this murder,” Adrian said while imposing sentence at the Adams County Courthouse in Quincy.
“You planned this murder. You practiced this murder. You broke into her house and you shot her…14 times…Some of those shots were fired while she was lying on the ground and you did all of that while your children were upstairs at your house, lying snug in their beds.”
The couple had three children, all sons.
“You replaced their mother’s love with emotional scars and trauma,” Rebecca Bliefnick’s mother, Bernie Postle, told the court in her victim impact statement Friday.
The first-degree murder trial captured national attention earlier this year after it became public that Tim Bliefnick had appeared on Family Feud, during which he suggested saying “I do” at his wedding was one of the biggest mistakes he’d ever made.
Tim Bliefnick filed for divorce in 2021.
He was also known locally after starring for Quincy University’s football team. The former quarterback was inducted into the school’s sports hall of fame.
Nearly 50 exhibits and 200 witnesses were introduced during the trial.
“Did you think about 12-year-old Deacon as you broke through his window?” Bliefnick’s brother-in-law Brett Reilly said during his victim impact statement. “Did you think about 10-year-old Grayson as you charged down his hallway, chasing his defenseless mommy en route to slaughter his entire world?”
After the sentencing, lawyers asked the judge to either set aside the verdict or order a new trial, arguing internet searches introduced during trial were never proven to be made by Bliefnick.
Adrian rejected that argument, saying Bliefnick’s phone and computer were password protected and never left his custody.
