A Brooksville man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for a brutal attack on his live-in girlfriend.
Tracey Merrill, 36, was arrested in January after deputies say he beat his girlfriend, Amanda Coutteau "within inches of her life." They say he beat her with a bar stool until the stool broke into several pieces.
Coutteau was able to escape and call for help.
Merrill was arrested a short time later. He was tried and convicted of charges of aggravated battery with great bodily harm, false imprisonment and domestic battery by strangulation.
Officials say the judge referred to Merrill as one of the most violent people that had come before him, then sentenced him to life in prison.