A teenager has been sentenced to life in prison for helping his brother murder his own children in a house fire.

Jeremy Wand teamed up with his elder brother Armin to kill his three young nephews as well as an unborn baby girl in exchange for $300 in insurance money.

In court yesterday the children’s mother Sharon Wand broke down in tears as she recalled how the boys considered their uncle a role model when he taught them how to count and ride a bike.

Jailed: Jeremy Wand was yesterday sentenced to life in prison for helping his brother murder his children

‘You were not just an uncle, a brother-in-law – you were like a son to me,’ she said during the 19-year-old’s sentencing hearing in Darlington, Wisconsin.

‘Now I do not know how to feel about you. I still love you – but I hate you for what you did.’

The soonest he could be eligible for parole is in 35 years, a judge said during the hearing.

Heartless: The teenager, pictured arriving in court, was ‘like a son’ to the mother of the dead children

The defendant’s 33-year-old brother, Armin Wand III, planned to kill his wife and their four children – including a daughter who survived – then claim insurance money and make a ‘fresh start’.

The teenager agreed to help his brother, who is serving life in prison without parole, burn down his house in Argyle in return for $300.

The pair set fire to some paper in the living room near the plug for the television, so it would look like an electrical blaze.

Mrs Wand, 27, was woken up by the fire with her clothes aflame, ran outside and rolled around on the ground.

She tried to break the window of the room where her sons Allan, seven, and five-year-old Jeffery were sleeping, but was unable to save them.

Sentencing: Judge Thomas Vale, left, told Wand that he would be eligible for parole in 35 years

The frantic mother, who was pregnant with a baby girl, managed to rescue her two-year-old daughter Jessica – but Armin then tried to thrust the girl back into the flames.

As well as Allan and Jeffrey, three-year-old Joseph died in the fire, while Mrs Wand miscarried.

Her bravery in risking her own safety to help her children was ‘nothing short of heroic’, a Department of Justice official told the court.

Her brother-in-law was seen running away from the scene, and later arrived at school wearing a t-shirt which smelled of smoke.

Mastermind: Armin Wand III, pictured in court last year, planned to collect insurance money over the deaths

During the hearing, Mrs Wand addressed Jeremy, saying: ‘I don’t understand, Jeremy, how could you do something this terrible for $300?

‘I wake up every morning hearing my sons begging for help. I have nightmares of them begging for help. And I can’t get to them.

‘I’m awake every minute of every day knowing my children are gone due to my brother-in-law’s selfishness.’

The 19-year-old’s lawyer acknowledged the heinous nature of the crime, but claimed that the youth was being controlled by his elder brother.

Judge Thomas Vale ruled that Wand should eventually be eligible for parole, saying he was influenced by the desire of the victims’ mother to allow her brother-in-law to rebuild his life.

Read more: Daily mail