A north Iowa woman could spend the rest of her life behind bars. Valerie Hasbrouck of Ventura is facing a long sentence after prosecutors say she tried to kill her mother with a frying pan.

A few months ago Hasbrouck pled guilty to four counts of willful injury. She attacked her mother Tressa Waddingham last December at her home in Ventura. After the beating Waddingham pretended to be dead. Then Hasbrouck made her mom's home look like it had been broken into and called 9-1-1.

Ten months later a stoic Hasbrouck listened as her mother recounted the neighboring land she gave to her daughter.

"She told me she wanted to build a home near us overlooking the Winnebago River," said Waddingham.

Waddingham read a letter she wrote to Valerie and the court. She remembers as a thought of goodwill turned into her nightmare.

"Early that morning," she said of December 3, "I baked her favorite date cookies thinking that we could have cookies together. That didn't happen. That wasn't her plan."

With final words to her own flesh and blood Waddingham left the stand.

"In the severe beating she took away everything we had or could ever have," she told the court.

"God be with you," she said to her daughter.

After the prosecutions recommendations the judge gave his sentencing.

"Four consecutive independent terms not to exceed ten years. The reason for consecutive sentence as apposed to concurrent are the separate blows delivered by the defendant to the victim."

Hasbrouck will serve up to forty years in prison, restitution, and anger management treatment. Before it was all over, Hasbrouck made a statement of her own.

"I have deep regrets and I'll have to live with them, and I hope to make some changes," she said to the court.

None of the family members wanted to talk after the sentencing. A victim's advocate, speaking on behalf of the Waddinghams and Hasbroucks says they are ready to move on with the healing process in private.