KEARNEY, NEB. — The nightmare cuts as deeply as the knife wounds to a former Odessa woman and her daughter.
"There was blood everywhere," says Deb Stone-Haga. "I had 12-foot ceilings, and there was blood on the ceiling.
"We were just drenched," she said of herself and daughter Brittany. "I don't know why we aren't dead."
On Friday, Aaron Manning, 27, of Kearney, was sentenced to 40 to 50 years in prison for the horrific attacks on Halloween night last year.
In Buffalo County District Court, Judge Terri Harder gave Manning 292 days credit for time already served. He had been charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
With good time, Manning will be 47 before he is eligible for parole.
"I can't apologize too many times," said Manning Friday before sentencing. "I deserve what I get."
Earlier this week, Stone-Haga and daughter Brittany talked about the horrific attack.
Around 9:30 on Halloween night last year, Stone-Haga answered a knock at the front door.
Outside was a man in medical scrubs, wearing a surgical mask.
She thought the trick-or-treater was a friend or family member pulling a prank, so she closed the door to get candy and to keep their dog inside.
Then the man pushed his way in.
He slashed Stone-Haga's throat and pushed her to the floor.
She could see blood spurting but thought it was a simulated blood capsule.
Stone-Haga soon realized it was no prank when the attacker turned, pushed his way into a bedroom and began attacking Brittany, then 15.
Brittany tried to call 911 on her cell phone but dialed 991 instead.
As she fought for her life, Brittany asked the man who he was and what he wanted.
"I'm the Grim Reaper, baby," she said he replied.
Stone-Haga went outside to yell for help.
"I started screaming: 'Somebody call 911! He's trying to kill us! Call 911! Call 911!"' she recalled.
A neighbor heard her plea and called authorities.
In the meantime, Brittany had dropped to the floor, playing dead.
The man left the bedroom, scuffled with Stone-Haga and cut her left wrist.
Brittany by then had sneaked into the kitchen and gotten a butcher knife.
She stabbed the man in the leg, once in the left cheekbone and pulled off his mask.
As he ran toward the door, they confronted him and realized their attacker was Aaron Manning, a friend of James Haga. Haga was Brittany's father and her mother's estranged husband.
Stone-Haga and her daughter say Manning threatened to come back and finish them off if they didn't drop charges against James Haga.
Manning then fled.
At the time of the attack, James Haga faced three first-degree sexual assault charges.
At his trial, Manning testified that his roommate Haga sometimes would hypnotize him and help him achieve "out-of-body experiences."
As Halloween approached, Manning said, James Haga talked about how he was innocent and wanted to kill his wife and daughter for accusing him.
Manning acknowledged that he went to the house and attacked Stone-Haga and her daughter.
Afterward, Manning said, he called James Haga and hold him that he had failed to kill the two.
A month after the attack, James Haga was convicted of the sex assaults. He is serving an 18- to 30-year prison sentence.
He hasn't been charged in connection to the stabbings of his daughter and now former wife.
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