Nineteen-year-old Michael Fitzgerald was sentenced to 62 years in prison Thursday in the 2004 murder of his father.

Steven Fitzgerald, 41, was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in the garage of his Westminster home when he surprised his son and friend Michael Tate, both then 16, during a Nov. 8, 2004, burglary.

Michael Fitzgerald was a troubled teen who had been placed in the custody of social services at the time of the murder. But his father never gave up on him, family members said at the Jefferson County sentencing hearing.

Michael Fitzgerald apologized to his family, but his uncle, John Fitzgerald, said he wasn’t sure whether the boy meant what he said.

Although he initially faced a life prison sentence if convicted of first-degree murder, Michael Fitzgerald’s prison sentence was capped at 62 years after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and burglary and agreed to testify at Tate’s trial in August.