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More than a year after they were shot multiple times and nearly killed, Jennifer Andrus and Jai Hogue say they still suffer from severe pain, as well as from fear that their attacker will come after them again if he is released from prison.

On Thursday, the two women asked 3rd District Judge Royal Hansen to put Valentin Dulla Santarromana behind bars for as long as possible. Both said he is a dangerous, violent man.

Andrus said Santarromana, her estranged husband, carefully planned the brutal attack, which was designed to kill her, and blamed her for "making him do what he was doing."

Hogue, her friend, also said the attack was carried out in a deliberate manner and compared Santarromana to a viper that looks calm but strikes suddenly.

The judge — who called Santarromana's case one of the most troublesome and heinous he has encountered — imposed a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

"It's my hope this can bring some closure," said Hansen, who called the women heroic.

The 38-year-old Santarromana had pleaded guilty to attempted murder and other crimes for shooting Andrus and Hogue on Aug. 22, 2015.

Andrus — who had separated from Santarromana and filed for a protective order against him about a week before the shootings — went with Hogue to the couple's Millcreek home near 3300 South and 700 East to care for her dogs and pick up some belongings. The women, both 42, thought Santarromana would not be there, according to charging documents, but he ambushed Andrus inside the house and hit her several times in the head with the gun and the flat side of a cleaver.

Andrus said Thursday that she feared Santarromana would change his mind midswing and hit her with the sharp blade. The pain was excruciating, she said.

"I begged for my life," she said.

Hogue, who had started to drive away after dropping off Andrus, ran toward the house when she heard her friend yelling for help and was hit by a hail of bullets.

Santarromana fired his gun at least 15 times and struck Hogue in the chest, ear, shoulder, midsection, pelvis, forearm, hand, groin, knee and calf, the charging documents say. A bullet in her chest penetrated both of her lungs and severed her spine, while another bullet nearly amputated two fingers.

Andrus said she tried to get out of the house, but Santarromana shot her in the ankle and forced her into the basement, where he sexually assaulted her and repeatedly threatened to kill her.

Santarromana also fired at Unified Police Department officers who were attempting to bring him a phone to continue negotiations after the his phone battery began to run out, according to the charging document.

After about a three-hour standoff, Santarromana shot Andrus several times — in an arm, a leg and the right side of her head — and tampered with a natural gas line in the basement as SWAT team members breached the home's front door. Police persuaded Santarromana to let Andrus leave the basement, then took him into custody.

At Thursday's sentencing, Hogue told the judge that her life now is a stark contrast to what it was before the shooting.

A longtime librarian at the Open Classroom in Salt Lake City, she was about to begin a job as a preschool teacher there, Andrus said. She always wanted to work with children and loved her job.

"I was an independent, active woman," Hogue said.

Now she is paralyzed from the chest down and uses a wheelchair to get around. She takes up to 40 pills a day and has not been completely pain free since the shooting. Some fingers were reattached to her dominant left hand, and writing is a struggle. She has worked for months with numerous therapists just to regain everyday skills.

In addition, she no longer has her job at the preschool and her family had to move to a new home to accommodate her wheelchair, Hogue said.

"I worry about our future nearly every day," she said.

Andrus, a University of Utah professor who teaches writing, lost her right eye and has undergone a series of operations. She said she has chronic pain, migraines, difficulty reading and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Her daughters struggle with the fact that their father committed "such an atrocity," Andrus told The Salt Lake Tribune after the sentencing.

Andrus said she's satisfied with the sentence, which prosecutors negotiated in consultation with her and Hogue.

Santarromana pleaded guilty on Sept. 16 to two counts of attempted aggravated murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated sexual assault, all first-degree felonies, and one count of assault on a peace officer, a second-degree felony. He originally was charged with 31 felonies; as part of a plea bargain, the other 26 counts were dismissed.

Santarromana also entered a no-contest plea on Sept. 16 to domestic violence in the presence of a child for allegedly threatening Andrus with a machete in an earlier case. Thursday's sentencing resolved both cases.