LAKE HAVASU CITY – Minutes after probation and incarceration was ordered, a Lake Havasu City teenager implored a Mohave County Superior Court judge to reverse course on the issue of jail time.
“I’m not going to be able to do a lot of stuff,” Christopher Ward, 18, complained at his March 24 sentencing hearing. Ward told Judge Lee Jantzen that he’d miss high school graduation, lose his job and would have to drop out of anger management and other self-betterment programs.
Jantzen did not waver from punishment that includes intensive probation for three years and 50 hours of community work service. He also ordered a 120-day jail stay with credit for 61 days already served, leaving 59 more days at the Adult Detention Facility.
Jantzen told Ward he would not back off the jail time because the plea agreement resolutions of two cases are already lenient. He also chided the defendant for committing new crimes while awaiting sentencing in his first criminal case.
“You just jump off the page as someone who cares about nobody else, Jantzen said. “This is the sentence I think is fair in this matter.”
Ward pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct with a weapon for pulling a weapon on his ex-girlfriend and her friends in a public area near the London Bridge last Oct. While awaiting sentence in that case, Ward was reportedly impaired when the vehicle he was operating was involved in a Feb. 3 injury accident.
Ward pleaded guilty to DUI and criminal damage charges to resolve the second case.
Dave Hawkins
