A Butler Township man will serve up to 13 years in prison for an incident in which he shot at another man, two vehicles and, ultimately, himself.

“I’d give anything to take that night back,” said Michael Lee Holt, 34, who pleaded guilty to attempted homicide. He was sentenced Thursday by Butler County Judge William Shaffer to serve 78 to 156 months in prison.

According to court records, the incident occurred Sept. 9, 2014, at the Whitestown Village Apartments, where Holt lived.

Holt was speaking with his ex-girlfriend, Mary Wright, when Wright’s new boyfriend, Michael Shamber, unexpectedly arrived.

When Shamber began honking his car’s horn in the parking lot, Holt headed toward it. Shamber got out of the vehicle, and Holt fired at least three times from a 9 mm handgun “in an attempt to shoot or kill” the other man, documents said.

Wright told police she followed Holt and pleaded to him to stop. Shamber ran across the parking lot.

“(Holt) yelled for Shamber to come back so they could settle this,” according to court records.

Moments later, Holt turned toward Wright, who had fallen to the ground, and pointed the gun at her. “Wright begged for Holt not to shoot her,” according to court records.

Holt did not harm the woman. Instead, he walked to Shamber’s unoccupied 2000 Honda Accord and repeatedly struck it with the pistol. During that vandalism, the gun fired, hitting the driver’s door.

Holt next went to Wright’s 2007 Honda CR-V and again used the gun to hit the vehicle. A round from the gun discharged and hit the driver’s door area.

Holt went back into his apartment where he apparently shot himself in the head with a 7 mm rifle.

Police later learned the shot had gone out of Holt’s head and traveled through both the bathroom ceiling and into floor of the apartment above.

Holt’s defense attorney, John J. Morgan, had asked the judge to show leniency on his client pointing to Holt’s mental health diagnosis of intermittent explosive disorder and bipolar disorder. Morgan stressed that his client, who only made it to the tenth grade, has a lower than average IQ. And now, Holt also suffers numerous physical ailments related to his self-inflicted injuries, and he faces years of surgery. Holt must eat through a feeding tube and breathe through a different tube.

Holt also was given a character statement by one of his victims.

“I believe in my heart that Michael Holt is a good man; a good man that did a bad thing,” Wright said.

Wright first outlined for the judge how she has been emotionally scarred by the incident so badly that she stopped working, fights night terrors and attends therapy. “My paranoia became so severe that I would stay awake for days at a time. I wouldn’t eat. I kept a journal full of what now seems to be nonsense.

“I would sit alone night and day with the lights on because I was afraid of the dark. Afraid to move, I would cry, sometimes quietly, sometimes violently, with a knife in one hand and a hammer in the other, trembling in fear,” she said.

“I don’t think my paranoia was even necessarily toward Mike anymore. I think that I saw what even the gentlest creatures are capable of and it made me fear all of humanity.”

She also told the judge that before the shooting, Holt had helped her cope with the death of her son’s father and helped her fight her own addictions.

“Forgiving is easier than forgetting,” she told the judge.

In fashioning Holt’s sentence, Shaffer said he considered Wright’s statement and he also realized there were two other victims who did not speak: Shamber and the resident of the apartment upstairs because the bullet entered his residence.

In addition to the jail time, Holt must pay about $12,000 in restitution to the victims and their insurers.