FARMINGTON — The judge and the prosecutor gave no credit to Aaron Gaitan for his request for leniency after he said he “never intended to murder anybody” during his surprise attack against his ex-girlfriend and her new date.

Gaitan, 37, of Layton, suddenly appeared at the driver’s door of a pickup truck on the night of Oct. 5, 2021, pulled open the door, and hit the driver on the head several times with a pistol barrel, according to charging documents. The truck was in the driveway of the woman Gaitan had lived with before their recent breakup. The man who was pistol-whipped had just taken the woman on a date.

The woman later told police that Gaitan said he was going to kill the new boyfriend and he would kill her too if she didn’t get out of the truck. She tried to intervene during the pistol clubbing and he struck her as well, charging documents said. She went inside and the man backed out as Gaitan fired at the truck, Gaitan ran up to the passenger window and fired through, hitting the driver in the thigh. The man was critically injured but survived.

At Gaitan’s sentencing in 2nd District Court on Tuesday afternoon, Judge David J. Williams gave Gaitan an opportunity to speak before the sentence was pronounced. Gaitan described problems in his relationship with the woman, faulting her, and added, “I never intended to murder anybody.”

Prosecutor Ben Willoughby of the Davis County Attorney’s Office, who had gone through the elements of the crime earlier, asked Williams for another chance to speak after hearing Gaitan’s denials.

“He still has the lack of insight to say she was responsible for all of it,” Willoughby said. He noted Gaitan had been convicted of domestic violence assault against the woman several years before. “The abuser is responsible for this abuse,” Willoughby said.

“I’m not really impressed with your statement that it was not your intent to murder anyone,” Williams told Gaitan. “That falls flat for me as well. You shot through a door, you shot through a window and hit somebody. The victim here is lucky to be alive. You’re the one who pulled the trigger multiple times.”

Williams said Gaitan would continue to be a threat to the victims and the community as well. He sentenced him to three years to life in prison. In a Nov. 18 plea bargain, Gaitan had agreed to plead guilty to first-degree felony attempted murder. In return, prosecutors dropped a weapons enhancement penalty and several other charges.

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