Sequim Gazette staff

A 29-year-old man who wielded a “hog splitter” in an attack on the mother of his child and a sheriff’s deputy will spend more than four years in prison after pleading guilty to assault charges.

 

Judge S. Brooke Taylor sentenced Shane Wheeler, of Sequim, to 51 months in prison April 25 after Wheeler pleaded guilty to assault in violation of a no contact order, two counts of assault in the second degree and one count of second-degree malicious mischief. Three of the charges were domestic violence related.

 

Deputies said on Feb. 25, Wheeler punched the woman in the face and tried to chop down the door to their son’s bedroom, where she fled, with a hog splitter.

 

The hog splitter is described as a meat cleaver with a length of 34 inches, with a blade of 14 inches, designed to be wielded with two hands like an axe.

 

John Troberg, the Clallam County deputy prosecutor who tried the case, said when officers arrived in response to a frantic 9-1-1 call, Wheeler ignored commands to drop the axe and took it in both hands similar to a baseball bat.

 

When told he was going to get shot, Wheeler growled at the officer, then ran, Troberg said.

 

Wheeler was tracked down by Port Angeles Police Department Cpl. Kevin Miller and his K-9 partner, Jag. Wheeler was treated at the hospital after sustaining minor injuries from the K-9 contact and booked into the Clallam County jail.

 

Along with his prison sentence, Wheeler must undergo evaluation for treatment for domestic violence, serve 18 months of community custody, pay $1,528 in court fees, including the medical treatment costs, and have no contact with the victim for 10 years, as ordered by Taylor.