Ex-Seahawks player who killed wife asks family for forgiveness

MONTREAL – Former Seattle Seahawks receiver Tommy Kane, who stabbed his wife to death, fought tears at a sentencing hearing as he begged her family for forgiveness.

Kane, 40, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the killing of Tammara Shaikh. He said he did not remember dragging her by the hair at his mother’s house last fall and plunging a kitchen knife into her neck.

“Please forgive me,” he said, addressing Shaikh’s relatives in Quebec Superior Court. “I know you guys hate me, but I’m sorry.”

He added: “I would never have hurt Tammy – never. Tammy was the sweetest person.”

Justice Fraser Martin scheduled sentencing for Nov. 5.

Most of Shaikh’s relatives had left the courtroom before Kane talked about his sudden attack on the mother of his four children Nov. 30, 2003.

He said he didn’t recall repeatedly banging his estranged wife’s head against the floor of his mother’s west end home, punching and then stabbing her as his mother and a church friend tried in vain to stop him.

Kane said he was desperate to save his crumbling marriage to Shaikh, 35, who wanted a divorce.

Experts have told the court Kane was battling severe depression, cocaine addiction and personality problems at the time. Two psychiatrists testified he lost control and had not meant to kill his wife.

“I was going downhill,” he said, speaking quietly. “I couldn’t do anything but put my face in a bucket of cocaine until my heart stopped. But it wouldn’t stop.”

Kane was charged with second-degree murder, but in an agreement with prosecutors pleaded guilty to the lesser charge last month. Sentencing range usually is seven to 20 years, but he could receive more because the attack was unprovolked.