FAYETTEVILLE -- An Elm Springs woman who claimed she stabbed her former husband as he slept because he was snoring pleaded guilty Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court.

Dawn Marie Weiser, 44, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and first-degree false imprisonment.

Circuit Judge William Storey sentenced Weiser to 40 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction with 15 years suspended. Weiser also was ordered to have no contact with her ex-husband and children.

"I just don't understand this," Storey told Weiser at sentencing. "I understand married people sometimes don't get along but to do what you did to your husband was inexcusable. It's especially inexcusable when this brutal attack occurred in front of your children. They will probably never fully recover."

Doug Weiser, 43, was stabbed three times at the couple's home Aug. 29, 2013, and treated at a hospital for a punctured spleen and a lacerated liver. He told police he awoke to his wife stabbing him and was able to take the knife away. The couple argued about his snoring, according to a police report.

"I think she was wanting to kill me," Doug Weiser told police.

Terra Stephenson, deputy prosecutor, said she never got a clear explanation of why Weiser was stabbed.

"Those kids and Doug are really trying to put their lives back together and come to grips with what she did," Stephenson said.

Police found a blood-covered knife hidden in a bathroom at the Weiser home and Doug Weiser's cellphone hidden behind a picture frame. Doug Weiser said his wife locked the bedroom door before attacking him.

Dawn Weiser first told police an intruder stabbed her husband, then later said she did it.

Dawn Weiser planned to use a mental defense to the initial charge of attempted capital murder, but doctors at the Arkansas State Hospital examined her and determined she was fit to stand trial.

Weiser was facing 10 to 40 years or life in prison on the attempted capital murder charge.