HAVERHILL — A Pelham, N.H., man admitted attacking a Haverhill couple with a baseball bat and a pool cue and was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in jail.

The husband suffered facial cuts and contusions in the January 2008 attack in the couple's driveway.

Jason Rowan, 32, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and one count of assault with a dangerous weapon in Salem Superior Court. The couple are the parents of a man who worked as a doorman at a downtown club.

Police said Rowan and a friend followed the couple from a cemetery to their house.

Judge Timothy Feeley sentenced Rowan to 21âÑ2 years in the Middleton jail, with 18 months to be served and the balance suspended for three years, during which he'll be on probation with conditions that include staying away from his victims.

Assistant District Attorney A.J. Camelio had asked for a two- to three-year term in state prison.

Rowan is in the middle of a house arrest sentence on federal gun charges out of New Hampshire. He was convicted of being a felon in possession of ammunition. When he gets out of jail, he will resume being on house arrest for the balance of his two-year federal sentence.

Police said Rowan and his accomplice, Jay Driscoll, 39, of 97 Pilling St., Haverhill, who also was indicted in the attack, wore dark clothes and ski masks. They attacked the man after having several arguments with his son, who worked at a downtown Haverhill bar, where he refused one of the men entry one night, police said.

The men also were involved in an unrelated incident downtown, where one of them attacked a man with a baseball bat, police said.

The victim told investigators a gun was pointed at him during the attack. Officers arrested the men and found a gun and ammunition in their car, police said.

Police said a string of incidents that began in late December escalated into the Jan. 4, 2008, attack.

Haverhill Detective Daniel McDonald said the doorman refused entry to Rowan one night in late December because Rowan was intoxicated. The doorman and Rowan encountered each other on the streets on two other occasions, one of which led to a verbal altercation in a nearby New Hampshire town, police said. The second encounter between the men, in front of a Wingate Street bar the night of Dec. 26, 2007, led to a fight in which police said the doorman was struck by Rowan, who used brass knuckles.

Several days later, on Jan. 4, 2008, the doorman and his parents observed the one-year anniversary of the death of a friend by going to the cemetery where he was buried, police said. Rowan and Driscoll followed the group to the cemetery and then followed the doorman's parents to their home, police said.

When the doorman's father pulled into the driveway, Rowan and Driscoll got out of a car and confronted the father, police said. Words were exchanged and the two men attacked the father with a baseball bat and a pool cue, McDonald said.