Threat leads to probation

A Green River man who admitted to threatening his wife with a knife was placed on supervised probation.

Richard Dean Wheeler appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at change of plea and sentencing hearing to aggravated assault and battery.

In exchange for Wheeler’s guilty plea to aggravated assault, he was given a three-to-five-year suspended prison sentence and placed on three years supervised probation.

According to court documents, on March 1, Green River police officers responded to a call on Wilson street regarding an assault with a deadly weapon.

After arriving at the home, officers spoke with Wheeler’s wife who told them she and her husband, were sitting at the kitchen table when he received a phone call that upset him.

Once Wheeler was off of the phone, she claimed he snatched a knife from the sink, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head back to expose her neck.

She then said he held the knife to her throat while telling her to “shut up.”

The wife said she lifted her right forearm and felt the knife blade on it. She then pushed Wheeler and the knife away from her, which caused him to fall to the floor.

She told officers he was injured in the fall. After that, he got off of the floor and put the knife back in the sink.

One officer noticed Wheeler had what appeared to be a rug burn on his forehead. He told the officer it was from his wife smacking him.

Wheeler said the two were arguing over family members when he made the wrong comment about a member of his wife’s family. He claimed she told him she was going to cut his throat.

“Before you do me, I’ll do you,” Wheeler replied.

He admitted to grabbing a knife from the kitchen sink and putting it against his wife’s neck, claiming the blade was facing out so he would not hurt her.

“I threatened her, but I didn’t do it,” Wheeler told officers.

He claimed he just wanted her to stop shouting.