Former UI Student Charged with Choking Iowa City Police Officer Will Spend One Month in Jail; Have Felony on Record

A former University of Iowa student who pleaded guilty Sept. 21 to choking an arresting officer last was sentenced to one month in jail today at sentencing hearing in a  Johnson County courtroom.

Vanessa Miller of the Gazette reports Plummer was emotional and apologized to the officer, Iowa City Police Sgt. Brian Krei, who he was charged with choking last fall. Still the ruling judge refused to defer a felony and it will remain on his record.

...Plummer, 21, also will have a felony on his record for the rest of his life despite his pleas that a judge defer his sentence and allow his record to be cleared if he stayed out of trouble for two years.

“I’m not granting your request for a deferred judgment,” Johnson County Judge Nancy Baumgartner said Friday during Plummer’s sentencing hearing. “You seem like a nice young man. You have worked hard and are doing well. But what you did was a crime of violence.”

Iowa City Police Chief Sam Hargadine told the Iowa City Press-Citizen that he was pleased with the verdict:

"I do agree that the felony needed to be on his record,” Hargadine said. “It’s something that just can’t be forgiven, that’s what those records are for. I’m appreciative of the considerations the judge made. I think they went with the maximum that was allowable for what this particular judge had.”

Plummer originally hails from Urbandale and was a University of Iowa student at the time of the incident when he allegedly choked Iowa City police Sgt. Krei until the officer lost consciousness in the early morning hours of Nov. 18, 2011.

For the crime, Plummer was originally charged with attempted murder, a class B felony, which carries up to a 25 year prison sentence; later, a charge of willful injury, was added to the list of charges. It was this later charge that Plummer entered a guilty plea on.

Plummer, who attended Valley High School in West Des Moines, was a University of Iowa student at the time of his arrest. He is no longer listed as a student in the school's directory.

Chilling police video captured the Nov. 18 incident, including a woman begging Plummer to let Krei go. 

Plummer eventually ran from the scene, and wasn't identified until Nov. 30 based on a CrimeStoppers tip.