Convicted murderer Richie Edwin Wilder Jr. wants contact with his 12-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son by the woman he stabbed to death in November 2015.

Judge Gary Lee barred Wilder from ever again having contact with those children when he sentenced Wilder to life in prison without parole this past May. Wilder murdered his ex-wife, Angila Wilder.

In documents filed with the district court this week, Raissa Carpenter, an attorney for Richie Wilder Jr. says that the no contact order is illegal because it is not authorized under state law and violates Wilder’s due process rights. Wilder is asking Lee to correct that portion of the sentence. She writes that a ruling is needed as quickly as possible because it will “have serious implications on whether or not (his) parental rights to his two children are terminated or not.”

Wilder had adopted Angila Wilder’s daughter from a previous relationship and the two later had a son. Both children are now reportedly living out of state with their maternal grandmother.

Wilder is also separately appealing his conviction to the North Dakota Supreme Court and wants a new trial.

Wilder was convicted of stabbing or cutting his pregnant ex-wife 44 times in the face, neck and upper chest in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2015 in the bedroom of her northwest Minot home. Some of the wounds were three or four inches deep. The only other person present in the home that night was Angila Wilder’s 2-year-old son by her live-in boyfriend, Chris Jackson. Richie Wilder Jr. killed his ex-wife, then locked her bedroom door behind her. The 2-year-old was found in another bedroom of the residence when Jackson came home hours later from his overnight shift at Walmart. Richie Wilder Jr. later tried to frame Jackson for the murder of Angila Wilder.

Richie Wilder Jr. had a tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife and had previously been convicted of choking her and threatening her when they were living at Minot Air Force Base in December 2011. Richie and Angila Wilder had continued to argue over custody and visitation with their two children.

Richie Wilder Jr.’s son and daughter by Angila Wilder were staying with their father and stepmother at their apartment on the night of the murder. Wilder’s current wife, Cynthia Wilder, is accused of helping Wilder to plan the murder and of cleaning up afterwards. She was also allegedly an accomplice to Richie Wilder Jr.’s failed escape from the Ward County Jail in May 2016. Cynthia Wilder, 26, a former Minot Public Schools elementary teacher, is charged with Class AA conspiracy to commit murder and Class C felony accomplice to escape.

Cynthia Wilder had been caring for her stepchildren as well as for her 3-year-old daughter by Richie Wilder after her husband went to jail. In a letter to the court last month, she asked for her bond to be lowered because she is needed at home to care for the children. The judge denied her request and the state’s attorney’s office said all of the children are living out of state and Cynthia Wilder is not needed to care for them. Richie and Cynthia Wilder’s daughter is now in the custody of her paternal grandfather out of state, according to statements made at the hearing.

Judge Lee has given the state until Aug. 16 to file a response to Carpenter’s motion to correct the sentence. Lee said in his letter that he wants to hear the matter soon as he wants to avoid delaying Wilder’s Supreme Court appeal.