Martin MacNeill, Convicted Of Killing Wife, Attempts Suicide In Jail

Martin MacNeill, the doctor who was convicted last month of killing his wife, is back in the headlines after attempting suicide in his Utah County Jail cell on Thursday night.

MacNeil made the attempt around 5:30 p.m., the Utah County Sheriff's Oiffice said. Deputies found him unconscious, interfered and transported MacNeill by ambulance to the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. He was kept overnight, and is expected to return to the Utah County Jail Friday.

Authorities have not released the method MacNeil used to try and take his life.

"He was discovered early enough by guards so his injuries were not life-threatening," Sgt. Spencer Cannon of the Utah County Sheriff's Office told ABCNews.

"We do not pretend to understand the senseless, distressful and hurtful actions of our father," MacNeill's daughter, Alexis Somers, told ABCNews.

MacNeill, 57, is currently waiting to be sentenced after he was found guilty of first-degree murder and obstruction of justice in the death of his wife on April 11, 2007. He will be sentenced on Jan. 7, and is also facing another charge for sexually abusing one of his daughters, ABCNews reported.

The prosecution during MacNeill's trial said he urged his wife, 50-year-old Michele MacNeill, to have plastic surgery. Afterwards he drugged her and drowned her in a bathtub. MacNeill allegedly wanted his wife out of the way so he could be with the nanny of his children, Gypsy Willis, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

MacNeill faces a life sentence.

"My family continues to struggle and to heal and move forward with our lives after the murder of our beloved mother," Somers told ABCNews. "Our lives have already been torn apart."