JOLIET, Ill. — A suburban Chicago man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for killing his wife and three school-age children as they sat buckled into the family’s SUV, allegedly so he could start a new life subsisting in the Canadian wilderness.

The sentencing of Christopher Vaughn, 37, came two months after jurors found him guilty of killing his 34-year-old wife, Kimberly, and their children on June 14, 2007. Each child was shot once in the chest and head.