Logan » Bonnie Rae Harper was sentenced Thursday in the Logan 1st District Court to one to 15 years in prison for fatally stabbing her husband of 27 years..

Harper, whose first-degree homicide charge was reduced to second-degree felony manslaughter when she agreed to enter a guilty plea, stabbed James Leon Harper, 48, in the back on Aug. 21 with a kitchen knife in their Logan home. Court-appointed defense attorney David Perry said Harper loved her husband and responded in self-defense when he pinned her against the kitchen counter.

"I never meant to hurt James. God knows I never meant for him to lose his life," Harper, 53, said Thursday. "I didn't even think. I acted to protect myself and I never wanted anything like this to ever happen."

Though he acknowledged that Harper was the victim of her spouse's chronic physical abuse, Cache County prosecutor Bruce Ward said Harper's self-defense claim in this instance was, "disingenuous."

"She made no indication about being choked and needing to defend herself, Ward said of initial interviews. "Now to come to court and try to claim some kind of self -defense, the state thinks it's just astounding."

Harper secured two protective orders against her husband -- when they lived in Washington County in 1995 and in Logan in March.

Denying a late motion to reduce Harper's charge to 3rd degree manslaughter, Willmore said his sentence offers her rehabilitation and "helps society understand that these things are not tolerated."

"I want to see the cycle within this family end. I am convinced that if it wasn't him, that it would have been you in the near future dying," Willmore said. "Even though James Harper was an alcoholic, even though he was an abuser, even though he was a child molester, even though he was despicable at times and even though some may say, 'Evil,' it wasn't up to you to take his life. It's not your decision."

abrunson@sltrib.com