SANDPOINT - A Post Falls man was ordered Friday to serve as long as 15 years in prison for stabbing and slashing his wife with a knife at her home near Priest Lake last year.

James Leverne "Vern" Carlton will have to serve at least five years in prison before he can be considered for parole, according to the terms of the sentence imposed by 1st District Judge Barbara Buchanan.

Buchanan said prison was in order because the victim was severely injured in the attack and the reason for it remains elusive - even to the defendant.

Carlton, 61, drove to the woman's home in the fall of 2013 and slipped inside late at night without being detected.

"He wore a mask and rubber gloves, and he had a knife. Because I am deaf, I did not hear him coming," the victim said in a written statement that was read aloud in court and translated into American Sign Language to Carlton, who is also deaf.

The victim said she was stabbed in the chest and suffered cutting wounds to her hands and arms. Carlton told Bonner County sheriff's investigators that he ceased the attack because God told him to stop.

Carlton agreed to take the woman to Priest River for help in exchange for a promise that she would not report the attack. She was eventually found abandoned on a doorstep and flown to a hospital for treatment.

The victim said Priest River Ministries provided shelter, advocacy, round-the-clock care and transportation. But she was let down by authorities because they disregarded her warning that Carlton would make an attempt on her life following a previous incident of domestic battery arrest.

"I told everyone, including the prosecutor, that if he was released from jail he would kill me. No one listened to me," the woman said in the statement, adding that she did not approve of the plea agreement in the case.

Carlton pleaded guilty to attempted murder, but a deadly weapon enhancement was dismissed in exchange for the plea. The enhancement would have added a consecutive 15-year term to the sentence he received.

The plea agreement in Carlton's case recommended a five- to 15-year prison term, which the court ultimately adopted.

Through an interpreter, an emotional Carlton apologized.

"I know what I did was wrong," he said.

Buchanan noted that Carlton had a troubled and isolated upbringing.

"It was horrible, but it does not excuse stabbing your wife," Buchanan said.