COEUR d'ALENE - Jonathan W. Ellington might be spending only two more years in prison.

Ellington, convicted of second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery by a Kootenai County jury earlier this year, has already served six years locked up.

He was sentenced on Monday in 1st District Court by Judge John Luster to 18 years in prison, but only eight years of that time is mandatory. He was given credit for time served.

Ellington, 51, was sentenced to a fixed term of six years on the battery charges, but that time will overlap with the murder sentence.

A jury found he deliberately ran over and killed 41-year-old Vonette Larsen, of Athol, with his Chevrolet Blazer and rammed a car occupied by two of her daughters on New Year's Day 2006. Ellington also was an Athol resident at the time of the incident.

Evidence presented at trial showed he got tangled up in a road-rage confrontation with the daughters, Joleen and Jovon Larsen.

Vonette and her husband, Joel, helped the sisters chase Ellington, eventually cornering him on Scarcello Road, less than a mile east of Twin Lakes Village and Highway 41. The parents were called to the chase by the sisters.

Once cornered, Ellington rammed the car driven by the sisters, then ran over Vonette Larsen, who had exited another car and was on foot running toward the sisters' Honda Accord.

Evidence at trial also showed that Joel Larsen fired once, possibly twice, at Ellington's Blazer with his .44-caliber Magnum revolver before Vonette Larsen was run over. He fired other rounds as Ellington drove off.

Luster said "poor decisions" were made "across the board" by all the parties involved in the incident.

"I'll never be able to make sense of the behaviors of that day," Luster said.

He said the Larsens wrongly have denied partial responsibility for Vonette Larsen's death. He said they "clearly" share in blame.

He said people who encounter an angry motorist are "best suited to avoid that angry motorist," not chase him.

Luster said that if Ellington had wrecked his Blazer fleeing from the Larsens and died, the tables would have been turned in this case.

But, he said, he was not there to judge them, but only Ellington.

He described Ellington as a "disaster waiting to happen," a man with a history of assault convictions and substance abuse problems.

"You engaged in conduct that cost a human life," Luster said.

Ellington didn't speak during the sentencing hearing, instead submitting a written statement to the judge.

Ellington, who has been out on bond and living in Utah with family, was handcuffed and taken into custody by the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department.

One of his defense lawyers, Anne Taylor, told Luster, "Your honor, he has remorse."

She said any more time in prison would only serve to punish Ellington.

Along with punishment, a judge also can consider deterrence and protection of society when sentencing.

Taylor said Ellington has "worked to change himself," including finding religion and reconnecting with family.

"He went back to the faith he was raised in," she said.

Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Art Verharen said, "What he did that day was something that he did by choice," including hitting the Larsen sisters' car with his Blazer, then running over Vonette.

Verharen added, "He takes no responsibility for the actions he took that day."

Mark Ellington, Ellington's younger brother, from Ogden, Utah, said, "He feels the loss. It's constantly on his mind."

Jovon Larsen said she "watched a crazed man run over our mother."

She called him an "angry, violent, drunken murderer."

The Idaho Supreme Court overturned an initial conviction and allowed a new jury trial, citing perjury by a prosecution witness and prosecutorial misconduct. The previous trial was in 2006.