Felony domestic-violence charges filed by prosecutor against ex-Seahawk Chad Wheeler
Former Seahawks offensive tackle Chad Wheeler faces two felony domestic-violence charges plus a third charge of resisting arrest filed by King County prosecutors stemming from an alleged attack on his girlfriend in Kent.
A spokesman for the King County prosecuting attorney said Wednesday afternoon after a probable-cause hearing that its office filed three charges against Wheeler: first-degree domestic violence assault, domestic violence unlawful imprisonment and resisting arrest.
First-degree domestic violence assault is a Class A felony, under Washington state law. Domestic violence unlawful imprisonment is a Class C felony. Resisting arrest is a misdemeanor.
The standard sentencing range, if the case gets to that, for first-degree domestic violence assault is 93-123 months. If the defendant is also convicted of unlawful imprisonment, the first-degree domestic violence assault standard range increases to 111-147 months. That is all according to a spokesman for the King County prosecuting attorney’s office.
So Wheeler could be facing about eight to 10 years in prison, or more.
Wheeler, who turned 27 last week, was released from King County Jail Tuesday on $400,000 bond. He has an arraignment scheduled for Feb. 9, when he’s expected to enter pleas.
The Seahawks released an extraordinary statement earlier Wednesday to “strongly condemn” Wheeler and to emphasize they had cut ties with him. The team let his contract expire at the end of the 2020, during which he played in five games.
To reinforce they are done with him, the Seahawks placed Wheeler on league waivers later Wednesday, according to the NFL transaction wire. That absolves the team of even the option to not tender a restricted free-agent contract offer to him, which Seattle wasn’t going to do, anyway.
He is likely to go unclaimed and thus will be a free agent, out of the league at least for now. The NFL has the right to suspend him under its personal-conduct policy and will investigate whether to do so.
Not that football matters in this.
Charging documents filed in court Wednesday allege the 6-foot-7, 310-pound Wheeler “strangled, suffocated and beat” his 5-9, 145-pound girlfriend Friday night inside an apartment in Kent “into unconsciousness—twice—both times leaving her for dead as blood poured from her nose and mouth, preventing her from breathing.”
The charging documents state Kent police responding to the alleged victim’s 911 call eventually fired a Taser round into the body of an uncooperative Wheeler in an attempt to detain him, “with little effect.”
The documents also state scans taken of the woman at Valley Medical Center revealed a fractured humerus in her left arm, and she showed “signs of strangulation.” She showed signs of having aspirated fluid in her lung” and that “over the next day, she vomited large amounts of blood.”
Doctors found swelling and bruising in the woman’s face they believed was consistent with her having been punched. She reported not recalling Wheeler striking her in the face, but that he had choked her to the point she became unconscious.
“The injuries, then, would either be the result of the defendant repeatedly punching the victim in the face as she lay unconscious,” the prosecutor’s charging document signed by Jason D. Brookhyser senior deputy prosecuting attorney for King County states, “or those injuries were inflicted as the defendant pressed his hand down against her nose and mouth, preventing her from breathing.”
The prosecutor’s office asked a judge to require Wheeler to be put on electronic home detention, with an ankle-monitoring device equipped with GPS tracking capability. A judge issued a no-contact order between Wheeler and the alleged victim through March 8.
This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 4:53 PM.
