A Los Angeles jury's guilty verdict last month has now produced a sentence of more than thirty years behind bars for Nick Pasqual, the 36-year-old actor known for his role on CBS's How I Met Your Mother. Pasqual stabbed his ex-girlfriend, makeup artist Allie Shehorn, more than 20 times at her Los Angeles home in May 2024, fled the state, and was arrested at the United States, Mexico border, Breitbart News reported.
The sentencing came down Tuesday. The conviction last month covered attempted murder, forcible rape, first-degree residential burglary, and multiple counts of injuring a spouse, cohabitant, or partner.
Shehorn had filed for a restraining order against Pasqual just days before the attack, accusing him of domestic violence. The restraining order did not stop him. Prosecutors said Pasqual broke into Shehorn's home and inflicted "great bodily injury upon the victim under circumstances involving domestic violence."
The timeline tells the story of a system that moved too slowly. Shehorn sought legal protection. Days later, Pasqual allegedly broke through her door anyway.
Shehorn described the attack when she took the stand last month, visible scars still marking her arm and neck. ABC7 reported on her testimony.
She told the court what happened when Pasqual arrived at her home, as reported by People:
"I locked the door and he just started punching holes in that door and broke that open, and I just ran into the bathroom because I thought there's another lock on that door."
The lock on the bathroom door was not enough. Pasqual stabbed Shehorn more than 20 times, leaving wounds to her throat, back, chest, and wrists. She underwent 14 hours of surgery and spent several days in the intensive care unit.
As we previously reported when the jury convicted Pasqual, the evidence against him was overwhelming. The verdict last month covered a sweeping list of charges, attempted murder, forcible rape, residential burglary, and multiple domestic-violence counts.
Christine White, a friend of Shehorn's, found the victim after the attack. White described the scene in 2024 to the Los Angeles Times:
"I just told her to keep her hand on her throat to stop the bleeding."
That detail, a friend pressing a hand to a wound on a woman's throat, captures the severity of what Pasqual did more plainly than any legal filing.
Shehorn survived. Pasqual did not stick around to face what he had done. The District Attorney's Office said he fled California after the attack. He was later arrested at the United States, Mexico border. The arresting agency has not been publicly identified in available reporting.
The entertainment industry has produced no shortage of criminal cases involving actors and public figures. Former Dances With Wolves actor Nathan Chasing Horse was sentenced to life in prison for sexual assault, another case in which a performer's public profile did nothing to shield him from the consequences of predatory violence.
Pasqual's case follows a grim pattern. The accused had a documented history of domestic violence serious enough that his victim sought a restraining order. The legal system's paperwork did not keep him out of her home.
That failure is not unique to Los Angeles. Across the country, restraining orders function as legal declarations, not physical barriers. When an attacker is determined, a court order is only as strong as the enforcement behind it. In Shehorn's case, enforcement came after the damage was done.
The broader question of whether the justice system takes domestic-violence threats seriously enough before an attack, rather than only after, remains unresolved. A Cape Cod judge facing domestic assault charges allegedly told his accuser he was "untouchable," a reminder that even those inside the legal system sometimes treat domestic violence as something beneath their concern.
More than three decades in prison. Fox 5 Atlanta reported the sentencing Tuesday. The exact length of the sentence in years has not been specified in available reports, nor has the court or case number been publicly identified.
What is clear: Pasqual broke into a woman's home, stabbed her more than 20 times, left her for dead, and ran for the border. A jury found him guilty of attempted murder, forcible rape, burglary, and multiple counts of domestic violence. A judge handed down a sentence that will keep him locked up for decades.
The case also sits within a broader pattern of celebrity criminal conduct that draws public attention only after the violence has already occurred. The sentencing of the addiction counselor who supplied Matthew Perry with ketamine drew headlines for its Hollywood connection, but the underlying failures, people in positions of trust exploiting vulnerable victims, are the same failures that show up in domestic-violence cases like this one.
Shehorn is alive because a friend found her in time and told her to press her hand to her own throat. She is alive because surgeons worked on her for 14 hours. She is alive despite a restraining order that did not restrain anyone.
Several questions remain open. What agency arrested Pasqual at the border? Where is he currently being held? What is Shehorn's condition today? None of these details have been made public.
The exact statutory charges and code sections have also not been released. Nor has the specific court that handled the case been named in reporting.
What the public does know is enough. A man with a documented pattern of violence broke into his ex-girlfriend's home, committed acts a jury classified as attempted murder and forcible rape, and then fled. The system caught him, at the border, not at the door.
Thirty-plus years is a serious sentence. It reflects the seriousness of what Pasqual did. But for Allie Shehorn, the scars she carried into that courtroom last month are a sentence of their own, one no judge imposed and no parole board will ever lift.
