{"id":807997,"date":"2020-06-01T18:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T00:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=384293"},"modified":"2020-06-01T18:00:15","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T00:00:15","slug":"man-injured-in-2016-police-shooting-sentenced-to-8-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/man-injured-in-2016-police-shooting-sentenced-to-8-years-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Man injured in 2016 police shooting sentenced to 8 years in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nathaniel Leisz has been sentenced to eight years in the Department of Corrections. <\/strong>
Courtesy of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office |<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 Nathaniel Steven Leisz, 36, was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday, June 1, more than three years after threatening police with a knife in December 2016, an incident that nearly resulted in his death.<\/p>\n

Leisz appeared in District Court on Monday, when Chief Judge Mark Thompson handed down the minimum sentence of eight years after testimony from both sides that Leisz was making genuine efforts to rehabilitate.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 26, 2016, Breckenridge Police Officers responded to a stolen car near the town\u2019s animal clinic. The suspect, who was later identified as Leisz, was spotted traveling north on Colorado Highway 9 by Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office deputies, who pursued him into a parking lot near Christy Sports in Frisco. Deputies, along with Frisco Police Department officers and Colorado State Patrol troopers made contact with him while he was still in the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Leisz exited the vehicle and began yelling for police to shoot him, in what prosecutors and Leisz\u2019s attorney both characterized as a clear attempt at \u201csuicide by police\u201d from an individual with severe mental heath issues combined with substance use.<\/p>\n

Police ordered Leisz to drop the knife multiple times and tried to subdue him with a Taser twice. Leisz was able to cut the Taser wires with his knife, and he continued moving toward officers. Officers also tried to subdue him with a beanbag round but were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

An officer finally fired three shots from his gun at Leisz, hitting him in the hand and ending the standoff. He was taken into custody and given medical treatment for his wound.<\/p>\n

Leisz was initially charged with 10 crimes, including felony counts of assault, aggravated motor vehicle theft and menacing. He was later placed on a mental health hold and committed to a state psychiatric facility in Pueblo until he was deemed mentally competent to continue with court proceedings.<\/p>\n

In January this year, he accepted a plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and the other charges were dropped. As part of the agreement, both sides also consented to a stipulated sentence of between eight and 16 years in the department of corrections.<\/p>\n

Both the defense and prosecution asked Thompson for leniency at the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a different person than when he first appeared in court in 2017,\u201d District Attorney Bruce Brown said. \u201cAnd I believe that because of the medications and being drug free, Mr. Leisz is showing the capacity to reform his behavior to that which the community expects. I do feel it is a bit of a roll of the dice at this point \u2026 because that will put him back in the community relatively quickly. But then it\u2019s up to Mr. Leisz. If he stays on medication and gets recurring treatment, I think he can fulfill his goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Jensen, Leisz\u2019s attorney, said the incident helped to set him on the right path.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose police officers saved Mr. Leisz\u2019s life,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cNot only by not killing him \u2026 but the fact that he was injured and this case arose. It was really the bottom of the bottom that Mr. Leisz could get. I firmly believe that if it wasn\u2019t for these past two or three years of in-custody medication and observation, Mr. Leisz may have been just setting himself up for some other tragedy. I think that has been averted now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court also heard from one of the troopers involved in the incident along with Leisz\u2019s mother and former attorney. Leisz chose to speak for himself, offering an apology for his actions and promising to rehabilitate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot stress enough how remorseful I am,\u201d Leisz said. \u201c\u2026 I can\u2019t imagine the stress that must have put on (the police officers), and I\u2019m truly sorry. I\u2019m sorry for trying to end my life altogether. I was in a dark place, off my meds and high on meth. With every step I took, I wanted to be dead. I never want to be there again. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thankful I didn\u2019t cause anyone any physical harm. I\u2019m thankful for my year at Pueblo for giving me the tools I need to keep my sobriety and sanity, and the right combination of meds to help do that. \u2026 I\u2019m ready to start putting the pieces back together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson ultimately decided to sentence Leisz to eight years in prison. He\u2019ll receive credit served for the almost 3 1\/2 years he\u2019s spent in custody, and he will have a three-year parole period following his release.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is someone who\u2019s been incarcerated for essentially three years who could have taken a lot of directions,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWhat I see is a person who has embraced his treatment and his time he\u2019s been kept out of the community. \u2026 Mr. Leisz does appear to understand the nature of his lifetime commitment to sobriety and mental health treatment, and he appears to have made substantial progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nathaniel Leisz has been sentenced to eight years in the Department of Corrections. Courtesy of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office | BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 Nathaniel Steven Leisz, 36, was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday, June 1, more than three years after threatening police with a knife in December 2016, an incident that nearly resulted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-09 16:47:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}