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AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A man accused of shooting his wife of 45 years in a hospital intensive care unit in what may have been a mercy killing was charged Wednesday with aggravated murder, and his attorney said the man always acted out of love.

John Wise appeared before a municipal court judge in Akron via video from jail Wednesday morning. No plea was entered. He must return to court Aug. 22.

Wise, who lived with his wife in Massillon, is accused of shooting her at her bedside in the ICU unit of Akron General Medical Center Saturday. She died the next morning.

His attorney, Paul Adamson, said after the brief court session that the unfolding case would show Wise acted out of love.

"I'm thoroughly convinced he's a good man. I think his past history bears that out," Adamson said.

"Forty-five years of marriage, blessed to be deeply in love with his wife throughout those 45 years, and I am absolutely confident that everything that he's ever done for his wife has been done out of deep love, including the events that just recently transpired."

Wise appeared in court Tuesday and was apparently confused about initially being charged only with attempted murder, asking "Is she not dead?" Visiting Judge Marvin Shapiro told Wise that he would soon have an attorney who could answer his questions.

Prosecutors upgraded the charge to aggravated murder after an autopsy showed that Barbara Wise died from a gunshot wound to her head. A county medical examiner ruled her death a homicide.

Nurses on the hospital floor where Barbara Wise had been in critical condition in the ICU for several days at first thought an oxygen tank had exploded when they heard a popping sound, a 911 caller told a dispatcher.

A woman, who identified herself as a nurse, said she and others looked into the room and saw a man dressed in black. "We saw him sitting there with a gun. He was, like, loading it," she said.

The caller said she didn't know if anybody had been shot, but she heard screaming as she hid in a room.

Why Barbara Wise was in the hospital hasn't been released.

Emergency personnel responded to the Wises' home a week before the shooting for a medical call that involved advanced life support, including oxygen and a heart monitor. Hospital and emergency officials have said they can't disclose any information about patients because of privacy rules.

Wise entered the hospital on Saturday through the main entrance and went up to his wife's room without drawing any attention, apparently keeping the handgun concealed, hospital spokesman Jim Gosky said. A doctor nearby heard a distinctive popping sound, he said.

URBANA, Ohio (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty to stabbing, suffocating and dismembering his girlfriend has been sentenced to life in prison and must serve at least 42 years before being eligible for parole.

Matthew Puccio, who was sentenced Monday in Champaign County Common Pleas Court, pleaded guilty last month to aggravated murder in the death of Jessica Rae Sacco along with other charges including felonious assault, gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. The remains of Sacco, 21, were found in the bathtub of their apartment in Urbana, in western Ohio, in late March.

Authorities said Puccio, 26, stabbed Sacco in the abdomen in an argument and suffocated her hours later with a plastic bag. Prosecutor Nick Selvaggio said in court that Sacco fought Puccio off at first but Puccio wrapped a second bag around her face.

The prosecutor also said Puccio enlisted the help of four friends to help in covering up the crime by dismembering the body and helping him dispose of limbs in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky. The two men and two women also have pleaded guilty to charges in the case and were sentenced on various counts.

Puccio told the judge before his sentencing that he loved Sacco. The Dayton Daily News reported that when the judge asked how he could "kill and butcher" someone he loved, he replied: "That's what I'm still trying to figure out."

Sacco's mother, Susan Taynor, was in the courtroom on Monday, holding her daughter's ashes in a red velvet bag in her lap.

Taynor said after the sentencing that she believes Puccio is "an expert in knowing how to manipulate," the Urbana Daily Citizen reported.

During the investigation, Selvaggio said Puccio gave at least five versions of what happened to Sacco before he finally told authorities the truth. Selvaggio said that Puccio initially denied the killing, saying Sacco had kicked him out of the house. Other versions included the claim that he killed her in self-defense after she assaulted him and that he didn't mean to dismember her.

In media interviews, Puccio said he met Sacco through Facebook while he was living in Texas, they moved in together in Urbana and they argued often. He also said Sacco begged him to kill her after he confronted her about text messages she'd sent saying she wanted him dead.

Puccio originally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but changed his plea after he was found competent to stand trial.