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Provo • For Alexis Somers, the last 7 1/2 years have been her darkest days.

Her "entire world" was shattered on April 11, 2007, when her mother was murdered. Five weeks later, she was sexually assaulted.

After more than seven years, one man was found guilty of the crimes: her father, Martin MacNeill.

"He made the choice to destroy his family," Somers told the judge during MacNeill's sentencing hearing in the sexual abuse case Monday. "He made the choice to murder my mother. He made the choice to sexually assault me."

Somers pleaded with 4th District Judge Samuel McVey to order the maximum sentence for MacNeill's conviction on a second-degree felony charge of forcible sexual abuse.

"He has created his own fate," Somers told the judge. "He has destroyed so many lives. My father's facade is now crumbled. My father is a monster."

McVey ultimately granted Somers' request, sentencing MacNeill to one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison. Before handing down the sentence, McVey said he could not consider probation for the former doctor because he has not cooperated with Adult Probation and Parole.

"Mr. MacNeill is not only not cooperating, but he has not admitted to misconduct, which would preclude him from being involved in sex offender treatment," McVey said.

Neither MacNeill nor his attorney, Randall Spencer, gave a statement in court Monday. MacNeill sat in the jury box surrounded by other inmates during sentencing, and showed no emotion throughout the hearing.

Spencer left the courtroom after the sentencing without speaking to reporters.

Deputy Utah County Attorney David Sturgill said after the sentencing that it was a "good day" for Somers.

"Finally she has seen some resolution to this very terrible chapter of her life," he said.

Somers said she felt relieved that the judge opted for a prison sentence for her father.

"I just hope he spends the rest of his life in prison," she said. "And tomorrow, I believe he'll be transported up to prison for the first time. It's a big thing to finally have him serve hard time for what he's done to our family."

The Tribune normally does not identify sexual abuse victims, but Somers has publicly disclosed that she was the victim in the case.

The sexual abuse occurred on May 23, 2007, about five weeks after the death of MacNeill's wife, 50-year-old Michele MacNeill.

Somers testified at a July trial that she was alone sleeping on her parents' bed when she woke to find MacNeill rubbing her buttocks and licking and kissing one of her hands. She said her father told her, "Oh, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I thought you were your mother."

A jury deliberated for about 2 1/2 hours before finding MacNeill guilty.

A different Utah County jury convicted MacNeill last year of murdering his wife by drugging her and drowning her in a bathtub at their Pleasant Grove home. MacNeill is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in that case.

The sentencing has been delayed because Spencer filed a motion to dismiss the homicide case, asking for murder and obstruction of justice charges to be dismissed or that MacNeill be granted a new trial.

Spencer argued in the motion that MacNeill should get a new trial because a federal inmate lied on the stand about a possible early release he received in exchange for his testimony and that prosecutors did not disclose that a deal was in the works.

Prosecutors chalked up claims of a "secret deal" to a "conspiracy theory," and said no such deal had been planned.

Judge Derek Pullan agreed in his order that the inmate was not truthful on the stand. The judge also said the county attorney's office investigator who had agreed to write a letter of recommendation should not have sat silent during trial, "allowing prosecutors to elicit false testimony" from the inmate about whether he was being offered any benefit for testifying.

But Pullan ultimately denied the motion, ruling that even if the jury knew the inmate had requested a recommendation letter — and that the investigator had agreed to write one — it likely would not have affected the outcome of the trial.

The federal inmate testified during MacNeill's four-week trial that the defendant confessed to him that he drugged his wife, then drowned her in a bathtub at their Pleasant Grove home on April 11, 2007.

Prosecutors said MacNeill killed his wife so he could continue an affair with another woman, Gypsy Willis.