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Long, 38, was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for a thwarted attempt to hire a hit man to kill Avery, her ex-husband, for $325, a minivan and the promise of life insurance money she hadn't known she was no longer a beneficiary to.

Long pleaded guilty in September to a charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the February 2004 plot.

"This was not a crime of passion," Avery told state District Judge Albert S. "Pat" Murdoch in Albuquerque as he urged the judge to impose a lengthy sentence to keep him and the couple's three children safe for as long as possible.

"Let my kids grow up in peace," he said.

Avery described his turbulent, 16-year marriage to Long as one tainted by her accusations and threats and her "fantasies" of domestic violence. Long, he said, was a frequent filer of domestic violence complaints, none that was substantiated.

The troubled union eventually ended in a bitter and prolonged divorce in November 2002, slightly more than a year before the attempted murder.

Long apologized in court to Avery and tried to persuade the judge to give her a second chance.

"I've never done anything stupid like this before," she said. "And I can assure you I never will again."

Her attorney, Jean McCray, described Long as an intelligent woman beaten down by years of abuse, dominance and mental cruelty who lost everything, including her children, her depression medication and her mental health.

"I think she was at her wits' end," she said.

McCray asked the judge to impose probation and a therapeutic program instead of prison, saying the trauma of jail since her arrest last year had already been punishment enough.

"Incarceration has done everything it can do with Patricia Long," she said.

But Murdoch said he remained concerned that by not sending her to prison he could be putting Avery's and the children's lives in danger.

"I do believe Ms. Long is in a great deal of psychological turmoil," he said. "But I still think she's trying to find her way back from wherever she's been."

Murdoch imposed the full nine-year sentence and then suspended all but three. He also ordered her into the Bridges for Women therapeutic program upon release as well as five years of supervised probation. Long is also not to have any contact with Avery and can contact her children only if the domestic court allows.

Long gave no reaction as Murdoch imposed the sentence.

She was accused of posting an ad on an Internet mercenary site that stated: "I would like to die - to be killed. I don't have a lot of money but you could do it for the fun of it or for practice."

An anonymous source notified law enforcement, and a Bernalillo County sheriff's detective posed as a hit man. Prosecutors say the Internet posting was merely a smokescreen to her true intention - having Avery killed.

"She considered my murder for two years" before intensifying her efforts a week before she contacted the hit man, Avery said.

What especially upset him, Avery said, was learning that Long had another hit man waiting in the wings and that his own body was supposed to have been found by their then-7-year-old son.