Actor Nick Pasqual – who is known for a role in How I Met Your Mother – was sentenced on Tuesday to life behind bars for a brutal attack on his former girlfriend. 

Prosecutors said he stabbed Allie Shehorn, an acclaimed special-effects makeup artist, more than 20 times inside her Southern California home.

Pasqual, 36, was convicted last month on multiple felony counts, including attempted murder, forcible rape and domestic violence stemming from the May 2024 assault on Shehorn at her residence in Sunland, California.

During Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Hayden Zackey imposed a life sentence and delivered a blistering assessment of Pasqual’s conduct. 

According to reports from the courtroom, spectators applauded as the sentence was announced.

The judge described the attack as exceptionally violent and told Pasqual that he represented one of the worst offenders to come before the court. 

Zackey also remarked that Pasqual had narrowly avoided a possible death sentence, saying Shehorn’s determination to stay alive ultimately spared him from that outcome.

‘I’ve never seen a person more hellbent on terrorizing another person,’ Zackey told the defendant, adding, ‘To call you a human being is an insult to society.’

Former actor Nick Pasqual was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of attempting to murder his ex-girlfriend, award-winning makeup artist Allie Shehorn, during a 2024 attack 

Shehorn, pictured in 2024,  told the court how she fought to survive after being stabbed more than 20 times, using a belt to slow the bleeding before paramedics arrived. The scars of the attack can still be seen

Before the sentence was handed down, Shehorn addressed the court in an emotional victim impact statement. 

Wearing a red dress that exposed the scars left by the assault, the 37-year-old recounted the terrifying moments after she was attacked.

She told the court she remembered lying in a pool of blood and wondering whether she would ever have the opportunity to become a mother.

Shehorn said she used a belt as a makeshift tourniquet around her neck in an effort to slow the bleeding until emergency responders arrived.

Despite the lasting physical reminders of the attack, she said she now views her scars as symbols of survival and referred to Pasqual as ‘a coward.’

This is a breaking news story – more follows…