A Lake County Judge sentenced a man to the maximum 12 years Friday under a plea deal after admitting he attacked his wife for more than 30 minutes in their Gary apartment last year.

Sylvester Okafor, 28, of Chicago, had his head down for most of the hearing and appeared to cry as he addressed the court. He pleaded guilty to criminal confinement, a level 3 felony, according to a plea agreement filed April 29.

“You’ve earned that,” Judge Samuel Cappas told him Friday. “You’ve earned more, but my hands are tied at 12 years.”

Okafor, who is not a U.S. citizen, is likely facing deportation at any time back to his native Nigeria due to the felony conviction, his lawyer Cipriano Rodriguez said.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Infinity Westberg said the attack — caught on tape — was one of the most vicious she had seen.

Okafor punched the woman in the head several times, tripped her, then stomped her in the face, head and upper chest, charges allege. He pressed his foot down on her neck, while the woman is heard struggling to say, “I can’t breathe” on the footage. He went to a backroom briefly, then grabbed a vase, smashing it in the back of her head, charges state. Okafor tripped her again, then choked her with a cloth until she passed out, the affidavit states.

At one point, he forcibly poured hot water down her throat, charges said. He tied her hands behind her back, turned on loud music and tied a cloth around her mouth, so she couldn’t scream loudly, charges said. He physically dragged her into the living room, resumed kicking her in the face, head, torso, mouth and throat, documents allege.

Westberg would have preferred to try him on the original attempted murder case, but cut the deal to spare the woman further suffering.

Okafor originally was charged with nine felonies — attempted murder, three counts of criminal confinement, domestic battery by means of a deadly weapon, domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury, strangulation, domestic battery and intimidation.

Westberg said the woman called her, attempting to take the blame for the attack.

“On this?” Cappas said.

It was “sickening,” the prosecutor replied.

The woman had a physical disability and suffered from a mental illness, Westberg said. Her three children, including a now 3-year-old with Okafor, were in nearby bedrooms, suggested he beat her in the past, she said.

The video “speaks for itself,” Rodriguez said.

That day, Okafor “snapped,” he said.

Okafor grew up in Nigeria, where he and seven other siblings living in a single apartment endured physical abuse from their parents, the lawyer said.

He came to the U.S. to get a master’s degree from Cleveland State, a process that was interrupted when his father died, Rodriguez said.

Okafor migrated to Truman College in Chicago where he and the woman met, but he wasn’t able to secure a scholarship as a noncitizen to continue his studies.

A prior domestic battery case involving the same woman was dropped, Rodriguez noted. Okafor had no other prior felony convictions and was a low risk to reoffend, he said.

Westberg said Okafor pressured the same woman to not cooperate.

Okafor tearfully told the court he regretted his actions.

Cappas countered the tape was “somewhat mind boggling” in the “casualness” of its cruelty as he beat and tortured the woman.

It was “stunning to watch that,” he said. “She didn’t fight back one bit.”

The judge said he had no doubt Okafor would do it again.

“She’s better off without you,” he said. “So are your kids.”

Rodriguez said Okafor was not sure if he would appeal.

He was accused of trying to kill the woman by tying her up, choking and beating her, all caught on an apartment’s security camera on April 27, 2021, charging documents allege.

The woman told police Okafor got angry after she left the apartment to go to the beach in the city’s Miller section with her sister, charges state. She had walked to the Miller South Shore Line station with her children when Okafor pulled up and asked if they needed a ride, documents said.

She and the kids climbed in the car, but Okafor instead drove back to their apartment, the affidavit states. The woman knew he would beat her, even though Okafor told her earlier she could go, charges allege.

The incident was recorded for 36 minutes on a security camera.