'A Toxic Love Story' Ian Diaz's Wife Begged Judge To Show Him Mercy Before Sentencing

Ian Diaz's wife begged a federal judge to show him mercy before he was sentenced to more than a decade behind bars ... warning his imprisonment would tear apart their family and devastate their young son ... TMZ has learned.

In an April 2023 letter obtained by TMZ, Amy asked the court for leniency and revealed she and Ian shared a 5-year-old son Tristan. The letter was filed with Ian's sentencing materials.

Amy described Ian as a hands-on father who picked Tristan up from school almost every day, helped with his homework, played games with him and was teaching him chess.

She said their son adored his dad and warned a lengthy prison sentence would have a devastating impact on the boy, writing ... "We need Ian with us."

Amy also told the judge she could struggle to pay the mortgage on their Glendora home and keep Tristan enrolled at his private Christian school without Ian's income.

She acknowledged and respected the jury's decision, but maintained Ian's convictions did not reflect the husband and father she knew. Amy asked the court not to punish Tristan along with his father.

The letter gives new insight into the family TMZ previously revealed Ian built with Amy after his relationship with Michelle Hadley and his disastrous marriage to Angela Connell Diaz.

As we reported, Ian and Amy secretly married in 2020, and she remained one of his biggest supporters before he was sentenced in 2023 to more than 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, perjury and obstruction of a federal matter.