For months after his daughter was murdered, Dinsha Palkhiwala would suddenly wake at 3.30am - the same time he found out she was dead.

Nanthagopal Lechmana, 37, was last year found guilty of the strangulation murder of his wife, Pharzana Nanthagopal, in the early hours of February 25, 2008, in western Sydney.

Lechmana admitted to killing the 27-year-old but lost his attempt to have the charge reduced to manslaughter on the basis he had suffered severe depression.

An emotional Mr Palkhiwala told a sentencing hearing in the NSW Supreme Court today of how he spent hours holding his daughter's hand at a funeral home.

"It might be my belief, but at one stage I could actually feel the warmth in my hand," he said, reading from his victim's impact statement.

"I felt she was communicating with me through her touch."

Lechmana was arrested near The Gap in Watsons Bay hours after strangling his wife of six years, having left a suicide note admitting to the killing.

His trial was told the couple had an "unhappy" relationship, which worsened in the lead-up to the murder.

Ms Nanthagopal's parents found her bloodied body in the couple's nearby North Parramatta flat after receiving two calls about 3.30am.

The trial heard that during the first call Ms Nanthagopal's mother heard "gurgling" sounds on the end of the line, followed shortly after by a call from Lechmana to say his wife was dead.

"Since that fateful day, for months I would wake up from my sleep at 3.30am for no explainable reason," Mr Palkhiwala said.

On the first anniversary of his daughter's death, Mr Palkhiwala walked on Coogee Beach, as he had done with her the day before she died, to retrace their last moments together.

"In some of the waves I could hear Pharzana saying 'Pops it will be OK. I'm OK.'"

After reading his statement, Mr Palkhiwala took a deep breath, looked at Lechmana across the courtroom and told him he hoped he could "rebuild" his soul.

"It will give us some hope that this will not happen again to someone's daughter, someone's mother, someone's sister or someone's wife," he said.

Lechmana did not make eye contact with the family and sat in the dock fidgeting with his hands.

Ms Nanthagopal's mother, Mahrukh, and her sister, Sanobia, also read out victim impact statements.

Her sister said she had been robbed of the person who guided her through life.

"I used to look at life through rose-coloured glasses and [now] every day is an effort to get through," she said.

"Some days my only goal is to breathe."

Sentencing submissions will continue before Justice Megan Latham in the same court on June 11.

AAP