{"id":45635,"date":"2021-07-24T02:31:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-24T08:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wheat-sentenced-to-12-years-for-stabbing-in-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:26:22","slug":"wheat-sentenced-to-12-years-for-stabbing-in-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wheat-sentenced-to-12-years-for-stabbing-in-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Wheat sentenced to 12 years for stabbing in Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wheat\"
Wheat<\/span>Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Christopher Wheat, who pleaded guilty to second-degree assault for repeatedly stabbing his girlfriend in Cortez in January, was sentenced Friday to 12 years in the Department of Corrections and three years of parole.<\/p>\n

District Court Judge Todd Plewe handed down the maximum sentence, citing Wheat\u2019s history of domestic violence in the past 10 years and the violent circumstances surrounding the crimes committed Jan. 5.<\/p>\n

On that night, Wheat stabbed Ashley Jeter multiple times with a kitchen knife in her bedroom, according to police reports. He then went next door and stole his former wife\u2019s car at knife point and drove off.<\/p>\n

Wheat later returned to the former wife\u2019s home, grabbed his 3-year-old son and held him in front of Cortez police officers while holding a knife. He released the child, locked himself in the bathroom, threatened suicide, then gave up and was arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe job of a judge is to protect the community. You are a person who commits acts of violence against women,\u201d Plewe said before imposing the sentence. \u201cVictims of domestic violence deserve protection from the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n

22nd Judicial District Attorney Matt Margeson recommended the maximum sentence. He showed police body camera footage of Jeter\u2019s injuries.<\/p>\n

Wheat committed an \u201cabsolutely brutal attack,\u201d that caused \u201cserious bodily injury,\u201d Margeson said. He added that Jeter survived because \u201cshe fought back and the knife broke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeter, her mother and a mental health counselor attended the hearing, testifying about the ongoing physical and mental suffering from the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was vicious and his intent was to kill my daughter,\u201d said Andrea Jeter. \u201cShe carries physical and mental scars\u201d and requires long-term help in order to move on and not live in fear.<\/p>\n

Christopher Wheat\u2019s friend, father and father\u2019s fianc\u00e9 also testified, and urged for sentence leniency. His father asked for a new lawyer, which was not an option. Plewe stopped testimony of the fianc\u00e9 and admonished her after he said she made statements that indicated victim blame. He then ordered her out of the courtroom when she remarked his mind was already made up.<\/p>\n

Wheat\u2019s public defender, Jonathan Jourdane, sought probation, or a jail sentence not to exceed four years. He called for Plewe to be consistent in his sentencing compared with other second-degree assault cases.<\/p>\n

Plewe responded that on a previous second-degree assault case, he sentenced the defendant to seven years, and there was no history of domestic violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is way worse,\u201d Plewe said.<\/p>\n

Jourdane pointed out the defendant is Black and the victim is white, and that there has been a societal history of disproportional sentencing against Blacks.<\/p>\n

Plewe said he is aware of the racial disparity issue in society and that his decision was based on the facts of the case and not race.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Christopher Wheat apologized to the victims and said he was regretful and remorseful. Jourdane said Wheat has struggled with addiction and mental health problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maximum sentence needed to \u2018protect the community,\u2019 judge says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,133,168,923,28,29,76],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-domestic-violence","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-u-s-22nd-judicial-district"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86574,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45635\/revisions\/86574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45635"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}