WARWICK — There won’t come a day when Deborah Fuller is no longer afraid of her ex-husband, Michael T. Burke.

“I am, and will always be, scared to death of him and there’s no one that could convince me otherwise,” she said Friday. “All the threats over the years weren’t just in the heat of passion. Now, I know they were real.”

Burke, 49, was sentenced Friday to 40 years at the Adult Correctional Institutions for shooting her during an argument on Independence Day in 2007. He was ordered to serve 15 years at the ACI, with the remaining time suspended. He was also required to forfeit the firearm, if he hadn’t already done so, pay restitution and attend anger-management counseling.

It was the highest sentence allowed under the plea agreement brokered in exchange for Burke’s admission of guilt. The charge of assault with a deadly weapon in a dwelling with the intent to commit murder normally carries a potential life sentence.

Superior Court Judge Edwin J. Gale almost didn’t accept the plea agreement, saying he thought it was too lenient, but additional information about the case changed his mind.

“I think Mr. Burke is more dangerous than a career criminal,” Gale said during the sentencing. “Mr. Burke, to me, is like a collection of dynamite. It went off once, and until he receives the help he needs to come to terms with his unspeakable, selfish and criminal acts, he remains a danger, particularly to Ms. Fuller, but I’d suggest to many others.”

Burke maintains that all he remembers of that day is arguing with his wife that morning. The defense called Burke and his daughter, Tara Burke, to testify at Friday’s sentencing in an effort to clarify the record.

Michael Burke had been depressed in recent weeks after Fuller announced that she wanted a divorce. When Tara Burke, 24, walked up the stairs, her father looked at her, but kept the gun steady.

“He didn’t recognize me,” she told the court. “He seemed to not know what was going on.”

Tara Burke said she jumped on her father’s back, hitting him. The gun went off twice as they tussled. The first bullet hit Fuller in her right shoulder, blowing her shoulder muscle off. But the commotion gave Fuller the chance to duck into a nearby bedroom, where she held the door closed with her body. Michael Burke went over to the door and attempted to push it open. When he couldn’t, he fired the second shot through the door at the handle level. The bullet whizzed over Fuller’s head.

Burke was arrested the next day by Connecticut State Police after his car crashed into a tree in Sterling, Conn. Court documents read into the record characterize the accident as a failed suicide attempt where Burke suffered severe head injuries.

In her statement to the court, Fuller said she continues to have shoulder pain and will never be able to lift her right arm again. The shooting, she said, was the culmination of Michael Burke’s years of verbal and physical abuse of both her and the children.

“My life will never be the same,” Fuller said. “I will never feel free. He will never forget the day I ruined his life and made him shoot me.”

tbuford@projo.com