Bonne Terre man sentenced to seven years in prison for assault
Zachary Whaley. St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department booking photo.
Zachary Wayne Whaley, 30, of Bonne Terre, was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison after pleading guilty to assault in the second degree.
According to the probable cause statement, a Bonne Terre police officer was dispatched on April 30, 2024, to a residence where a disturbance had been reported. Another officer was already administering first aid to Confidential Victim (CV). Multiple witnesses stated CV had been stabbed in the neck. Whaley, Samantha Blomker, and Rhonda Conner were identified as the assailants. CV had serious injuries and was transported to Mercy St. Louis by Air Evac ambulance.
On Aug. 22, Whaley appeared before Judge Wendy Wexler Horn at the St. Francois County courthouse and was represented by Special Public Defender D. Christopher Lapee. The State was represented by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Samantha Goldsmith, and was granted permission by the court to file an amended information, modifying the charges against the defendant before trial. Whaley was initially charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. The modified charges included first-degree assault and second-degree assault. Then, the first-degree assault charge was dismissed.
Under oath, the defendant waived formal arraignment [a court procedure in which a defendant is formally read charges and enters a plea]. He then entered a plea of guilty to a single count: Class D Felony Assault in the Second Degree. The court accepted the plea and determined that it was made voluntarily, intelligently, and with a full understanding of his rights, including the right to a jury trial. The court also accepted the defendant’s waiver of a Sentencing Assessment Report [a pre-sentencing evaluation that provides information on the defendant’s background to aid in determining an appropriate sentence].
The court sentenced the defendant to five years’ confinement for the assault charge. However, because the defendant already had existing sentences in two earlier cases — 21SF-CR00635-01 [sentenced to seven years for assault, tampering with a motor vehicle, and resisting arrest] and 20SF-CR01119-01 [sentenced to four years for failure to register as a sex offender]— the five-year sentence was ordered to run concurrently with those, bringing the total duration of incarceration to seven years.
Lisa Brotherton-Barnes is a Daily Journal and Farmington Press staff writer. She can be reached at lbarnes@dailyjournalonline.com.
