HAVERHILL — A 57-year-old Rumney man initially accused of threatening a woman with a knife while telling her he would slit her throat has been sentenced to a year in jail as part of a plea agreement this month in Grafton County Superior Court.

Richard Horton Jr. pleaded guilty to three counts of simple assault on Jan. 31, in Rumney. Judge Timothy J. Vaughan sentenced him to 12 months at the Grafton County House of Corrections on one count, and handed down one-year suspended sentences on the other two counts.

Deputy Grafton County Attorney Melissa Pierce said Thursday that Horton would also have to undergo “batterer’s evaluation” as part of the sentence.

Assistant Grafton County Attorney Paul Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the case, filed information at the court saying Horton had caused “unprivileged physical contact” with the victim, Winter Horton, by grabbing her by the hair and “punching her about the head.”

A Grafton County Superior Court grand jury in April originally handed up two indictments against Horton for criminal threatening. The grand jury found probable cause that he had attempted to “terrorize Winter Horton” by threatening to kill her with a butcher’s knife.

At the Sept. 7 sentencing hearing, Vaughan gave Horton credit for 221 days pre-trial confinement and ordered that upon his release from jail, he have no contact with the victim or her family, except through court proceedings.