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Edward Halverson, 49, was sentenced Jan. 14, 2009, to three to 10 years in prison after a frying pan attack that left his wife, former Clark County district judge Elizabeth Halverson, with deep head wounds at their Las Vegas home.

Elizabeth Halverson was assaulted on the night of Sept. 4, 2008, at the couple's home near Tropicana Avenue and U.S. 95, according to Las Vegas police and court records. She called 911 for help as the attack was happening, and the recording also caught fragments of her exchange with her husband.

Officers found her in the master bedroom, bleeding heavily from deep wounds to her head. She spent more than two weeks in the hospital. Doctors used more than 100 staples and stitches to close the gashes in her scalp, and she was treated for a battered eye, according to prosecutors.

Edward Halverson was arrested at the scene. A Clark County grand jury indicted him on Sept. 24, 2008, on charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon and battery with substantial bodily harm. He initially pleaded not guilty.

In October 2008, he entered an Alford plea to a single count of battery with a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm, a plea in which a defendant does not admit guilt but concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict. The attempted murder charge was dismissed under the agreement.

At sentencing, Edward Halverson insisted he had acted in self-defense, telling the court that his wife had threatened him with a knife, according to news accounts of the hearing. Elizabeth Halverson, elected in 2006, had been suspended in mid-2007 and, weeks after the frying pan attack, was permanently removed from the bench by the state's judicial discipline commission over separate findings of misconduct.