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PROVO — Martin MacNeill was sentenced Monday to one to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing his adult daughter in 2007.
MacNeill, 58, was convicted of forcible sex abuse, a second-degree felony, after a two-day jury trial in July. MacNeill was originally scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 25, but 4th District Judge Samuel McVey granted a request to postpone the sentencing to Monday.
MacNeill was also ordered to pay a $1,125 fine and was not yet eligible for probation because he has not shown any remorse or taken responsibility, McVey said.
Alexis Somers, the daughter who was abused, read a letter in court, calling her father a "monster."
"He destroyed my world and created a living nightmare in its place," she said prior to the sentencing.
In a separate case, MacNeill, a former Utah County doctor and lawyer, was convicted in November of murdering his wife, Michele MacNeill, by overmedicating her and drowning her in a bathtub in 2007. He is scheduled to be sentenced for the murder on Friday.
Somers testified against her father during the two-day trial in July, saying that while she was sleeping in her parents' master bedroom, MacNeill touched her inappropriately. Somers said her father later claimed he thought that she was his wife.
Somers reported two incidents of abuse to police in 2007, three months after her mother's death. The second incident, which allegedly took place during a trip to Disneyland, was similar to the first one, she said, though it was not allowed to be presented in court.
Email: mjacobsen@deseretnews.com
