{"id":47960,"date":"2021-03-16T22:03:46","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T04:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bond-reduction-denied-for-man-charged-with-stabbing-girlfriend-in-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:40:59","slug":"bond-reduction-denied-for-man-charged-with-stabbing-girlfriend-in-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bond-reduction-denied-for-man-charged-with-stabbing-girlfriend-in-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Bond reduction denied for man charged with stabbing girlfriend in Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

A man charged with stabbing his girlfriend, endangering a child and stealing his ex-wife\u2019s car was denied a reduction in bond Tuesday morning in district court in Cortez.<\/p>\n

Christopher Wheat, 29, was charged earlier this year<\/a> by the 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, felony menacing, aggravated motor vehicle theft, child abuse and obstructing a police officer.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Matt Margeson offered a plea deal<\/a> this month in which Wheat would face up to 12 years in prison if he pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree assault, a Class 4 felony.<\/p>\n

The other charges would be dropped if Wheat and the judge accepted the deal.<\/p>\n

The usual range of jail time for second-degree assault is two to six years. But the district attorney\u2019s office added a crime of violence sentence enhancer. In Colorado, judges may impose enhanced sentences on individuals convicted of violent crimes if the offender used a deadly weapon or caused serious bodily injury.<\/p>\n

According to an incident report from the Cortez Police Department, Wheat allegedly stabbed his girlfriend, Ashley Jeter, on the night of Jan. 5.<\/p>\n

He then allegedly stole his ex-wife\u2019s car at knife-point and drove off, returning an hour later and broke into his former wife\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

When police arrived, Wheat grabbed his 3-year-old son and held him between the officers and himself. He pointed a knife at officers and retreated farther into the home.<\/p>\n

Wheat eventually released the child after numerous commands to let him go and locked himself in a bathroom.<\/p>\n

Wheat finally complied with police, dropped his weapons and was placed into custody.<\/p>\n

Wheat told officers he had taken some \u201cbad drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeter was taken to Southwest Memorial Hospital and treated for \u201cserious bodily injury\u201d from the stab wounds, according to the incident report.<\/p>\n

Wheat\u2019s attorney, Jonathan Jourdane, argued in court Tuesday that his client\u2019s bond should be reduced to $25,000 from the $500,000 bond set by Montezuma County Court Judge JenniLynn Lawrence.<\/p>\n

Jourdane mentioned that Wheat had been assaulted by other inmates<\/a> in jail and didn\u2019t feel safe due to racial animus.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Wheat, quite frankly, feels safer outside of Cortez,\u201d Jourdane said.<\/p>\n

Defense argued that Wheat should be able to post bond and spend time in Albuquerque with his son and former partner.<\/p>\n

Jourdane also argued that a protection order be modified to allow Wheat to communicate electronically with his son while in custody.<\/p>\n

Margeson responded by detailing Wheat\u2019s prior criminal history, which includes two convictions on domestic violence charges. Wheat also failed to appear in court four times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant has posed a threat of violence in the past,\u201d Margeson said. \u201cHe certainly poses a threat of violence in this case. He\u2019s alleged to have stabbed Ms. Jeter multiple times, stopping only when the knife in this case broke. A high bond is necessary to ensure the safety of the community, to ensure that Mr. Wheat appears for court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Margeson also mentioned that the mother of Wheat\u2019s son told him the 3-year-old is still having a difficult time processing the events of that night.<\/p>\n

The mothers of both the victim and the defendant spoke in court.<\/p>\n

Mary Heard, Wheat\u2019s mother, attested that she never expected to be in this situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son is really a good, good son,\u201d Heard said. When I got a call and was told what he had done, I could not believe that was my son. My son is a loving father. He\u2019s a good-hearted person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrea Jeter, the mother of the victim, argued forcefully that Wheat\u2019s bond should not budge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason my daughter is alive today is because the knife broke,\u201d Jeter said. \u201cMy daughter has scars all over her. To let him out right now on a lower bond amount is just absolutely ridiculous in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also expressed sympathy for Wheat\u2019s son.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat poor baby is going to have years that he is going to have to deal with what has happened to him,\u201d Jeter said.<\/p>\n

District Court Judge Todd Plewe decided to maintain Wheat\u2019s bond at $500,000. No modification was made to the protection order.<\/p>\n

A plea hearing has been set for April 20 at 9:30 a.m. Wheat will be required to enter a plea, and if he pleads not guilty, a date will be set for trial.<\/p>\n

If Wheat and the judge accept the plea deal, he likely would face up to 12 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n

anicotera@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

hearing set for next month<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-47960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47960","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=47960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87275,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47960\/revisions\/87275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47960"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=47960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}