SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) â?? Former Notre Dame assistant football coach Corwin Brown has been given a four-year suspended prison sentence for striking his wife and holding her hostage with a handgun in a seven-hour standoff with police last August.

St. Joseph County Judge Jane Woodward Miller agreed Tuesday to allow Brown to avoid prison after hearing from his wife, Melissa, who said taking her husband away from his family and the counseling he is receiving would be harmful. She also said she did not feel like a victim.

The 42-year-old Brown pleaded guilty but mentally ill in June to felony confinement and domestic battery charges as part of a plea agreement. Miller sentenced Brown to consecutive two-year prison sentences, which she suspended, placed him on probation and ordered him to continue to undergo counseling.