SALIDA, Colo. — An unhoused man facing up to a decade in prison after his probation was revoked was instead sentenced Wednesday to six years in community corrections after his defense attorney argued that barriers imposed by probation itself contributed to the violations now being used against him.
Judge Dayna Vise rejected the prosecution’s request for a seven- to 10-year prison term in Chaffee County District Court. The decision came after the defense questioned how a probation revocation could lead directly to prison for a man whose supervision, the defense argued, failed to account for his homelessness, medical complications and difficulty accessing treatment.
The accused pleaded guilty in early 2024 to second-degree assault and third-degree assault in a case involving serious bodily injury to the accused’s wife. The charges carry a stipulated range of five to 16 years in prison under the plea agreement.
He was placed on probation in February 2024.
The sentencing had been continued from a prior date for clarification of the presentence investigation report, or PSI. Deputy Public Defender Kyle Nettleblad accepted the confirmation but pushed back on the characterization that his client had decades of domestic violence history.
Deputy District Attorney David Little argued for a Department of Corrections sentence of seven to 10 years. He cited an extensive criminal history, four revocation complaints since the original sentencing and the PSI’s account of the accused’s conduct in treatment.
Little said the accused consistently blamed the victim and never meaningfully engaged with domestic violence treatment.
Little also pointed to a message the accused sent his probation officer in March 2026, in which the accused flipped her off and wrote that the violation had “forced me into survival mode” before describing ski outings.
“That’s just an invitation to DOC; it’s so blatant,” Little argued.
Nettleblad asked the court to reinstate probation instead. He told the court the accused had been accepted into Oxford House, a sober living facility in Gunnison requiring regular urinalysis testing and at least two therapeutic meetings per week.
Nettleblad then flagged a gap in the compliance record itself. In March 2026, according to the defense, the accused’s probation officer emailed his treatment provider and directed that he not attend group sessions because of a pending warrant.
“He was discharged from treatment in March when his probation officer sent an email to his treatment provider,” Nettleblad said, adding that the accused has since re-enrolled in domestic violence treatment.
The defense also described roughly 12 surgeries over two years, including hernia and shoulder procedures under general anesthesia. After one, the defense said, the accused could not forcefully exhale into a required remote breathalyzer for the better part of a week and had to coordinate being excused from tests.
The accused has been living out of his car. He told the court his felony conviction blocked him from renting housing, saying he offered one landlord a year of rent in cash and was still denied.
“The only way I can rent from somebody is to find a private owner that’s willing to overlook my background check,” the accused said.
The accused worked as a dishwasher and line cook through carpal tunnel surgery, the defense said, because his felony record shut him out of his prior fields.
“I’m a printer, a computer programmer, I’m a network engineer,” the accused told the court. “There’s really no jobs for me in this town with a felony.”
He said the ski trips cited by the prosecution were filming for a YouTube business he is building with equipment bought with restaurant wages.
The accused’s adult son asked the court not to send his father to prison. “I’m just about to be 28 this year, and I really don’t want to miss him out throughout my 30s,” he said.
Vise acknowledged the sentence “could go either way” and said she came into the hearing expecting to impose prison. But she noted the accused had committed no new violent offenses in two and a half years on probation and framed his core issues as “primarily substance use-related, as well as lack of structure.”
The circumstances described during the hearing highlighted how probation requirements can collide with housing instability, medical problems and barriers to treatment. According to the defense, the accused was living in his car, struggled to obtain housing and employment because of his felony record, had treatment interrupted at the direction of his probation officer and experienced medical complications that interfered with required breath testing.
Those difficulties became part of a compliance record that prosecutors cited in seeking years in state prison. At the same time, the prosecution pointed to significant aggravating factors, including the serious bodily injury underlying the original case, the accused’s criminal history, repeated revocation complaints and his message mocking his supervision.
Vise ultimately determined that prison was not warranted at this stage, identifying the accused’s primary problems as substance use and a lack of structure rather than new violent conduct.
Vise sentenced the accused to six years at Intervention Community Corrections Services in Jefferson County with 112 days of presentence confinement credit. He was remanded to jail until a bed becomes available, and the court denied a defense request that he self-report to the facility.
Vise warned that a revocation from community corrections would very likely be converted to a prison sentence.
“Sometimes your actions don’t just affect you,” Vise told him, referencing his son’s statement. “They’re impacting your loved ones around you.”
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