HAMPTON -- The teenage lover of Pamela Smart who shot and killed her husband 17 years ago is asking a judge for a reduction in his prison sentence.

Billy Flynn, 33, inmate of Maine State Prison in Warren, filed the request last week at Rockingham County Superior Court.

"I have never asked for one, until now, because as terrible of a place as prison is I know I deserved to be here," stated Flynn, in a six-page letter to Judge Kenneth McHugh asking for the reduction.

Flynn, originally from Seabrook, was 15 years old when he shot and killed Gregory Smart at the Derry condo he shared with his wife. He confessed he was having an affair with Pamela Smart, who was 22 at the time, and that she persuaded him to murder her husband so they could be together.

Flynn met Pamela Smart at Winnacunnet High School; he was a student and she worked as the school's media services director. Flynn, who was sentenced in 1992 to a 40-year-to-life sentenced for second-degree murder, is not eligible for parole until 2018.

Flynn said the reason why he didn't file for a sentence reduction until now was because he deserved to be there.

"I decided a long time ago that before I could ask you for a sentence reduction in good conscience I would have to spend as many years behind bars as I had been alive prior to my arrest," stated Flynn.

In the letter, he even apologizes to the Smart family by saying he "will never be worthy of their forgiveness but I desperately want them to know how truly sorry I am and always be."

Gregory Smart's father, Bill Smart, could not be reached for comment. Smart's brother, Dean Smart, said if anything, Flynn's sentence should be lengthened, not shortened.

"I think he should stay there," Smart said.

Flynn wrote that while behind bars he tried to right the wrongs he had done by being a model prisoner, mentoring at-risk teens and volunteering for many charities including Locks 4 Love and Toys for Tots.

"One cannot overwhelm a sin with good deed," stated Flynn. "You must make amends for the sin. But how do you make amends for taking a life? You can't."

While incarcerated, Flynn received his GED, is a member of the Christian prisoner's group and is paid to work at the prison as an electrician's assistant.

He also married a woman he met six years ago through written correspondence. Flynn's letter is part of a 100-page filing that includes letters of support from friends, his wife and step-daughter, prison guards and nonprofits he worked with while behind bars.

In 2005, Judge McHugh granted a three-year sentence reduction to Vance Lattime, who drove the getaway car the night of Gregory Smart's murder.

Lattime, who served 13 of his original 18-year sentence, was paroled in August 2005. Another man, Raymond Fowler - who was in the getaway car with Lattime - was paroled in April 2003.

Patrick Randall, who held Gregory Smart down while Flynn shot him, remains incarcerated and his earliest parole date is June 4, 2018.

Lawyer Mark Stevens, who represents Randall, said they are planning to also ask for a sentence reduction.

Pamela Smart remains behind bars at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York, serving a life sentence for being an accomplice to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

[- The Associated Press contributed to this report.]