The man found guilty of attempted murder in the second degree after hitting his wife on the head with rocks, attempting to suffocate her and leaving her for dead at their Cañon City home in 2015, was sentenced Friday by Senior Judge Gilbert Martinez.
Steven Whitt, 61, was found guilty for a second time by a jury Jan. 23 of attempted second-degree murder, second-degree assault, two counts of first-degree assault, and third-degree assault. He was sentenced to 32 years for attempted second-degree murder, 16 years for second-degree assault, 32 years for first-degree assault, and six months for third-degree assault.
Each count comes with a standard five years of parole and each sentence will run concurrently with one another. According to Judge Martinez, Whitt will be credited 2831 days of pretrial confinement.
Martinez's sentence stemmed from a number of factors, including "the harm caused to the victim and the serious harm caused to the victim ... what she lost and how she's been since the incident ... I find her credible when she states that she believed that this was a planned situation."
Earlier in the sentencing, the victim and Whitt's ex-wife, Debra Robertson, addressed the judge.
"Apparently, he'd rather kill me than leave me alone," she said, "which he had threatened before, he'd threatened ... that he'd kill my family and me and then go to Oregon and kill Shannon, his first wife, and her family before killing himself."
Robertson also detailed how her opportunity to become a military nurse was put on indefinite hold because of the mental trauma that both the incident and trial induced on her -- something Martinez did not take lightly.
"I have taken into account the crime itself, the charges, I've taken into account the facts surrounding the crime and, quite frankly, the facts surrounding the crime are very egregious," Martinez said. "There was the choking, there was the hitting and, but for the grace of God, this would probably be a homicide."
Whitt, 60, originally was found guilty by a jury on April 13, 2017, of all charges after he hit his ex-wife, Robertson, who has testified publicly, over the head with two large stones June 29, 2015.
In June 2017, Whitt was sentenced to 32 two years in the Department of Corrections on each count, to run concurrently.
The Colorado Court of Appeals in June 2022 reversed the attempted murder in the second-degree conviction against Whitt and ordered a new trial based on evidentiary issues and alleged Miranda rights violations.
Whitt argued that the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress statements he made during a police interrogation, failing to limit certain evidence and allowing improper expert testimony from four witnesses. Whitt also argued that pervasive prosecutorial misconduct and cumulative error required a new trial.
District Court Judge Lynette Wenner in September vacated the case and a new trial date was set.
According to an arrest affidavit, law enforcement received a call from Whitt at his residence the day of the assault, stating his wife had driven away from the property at a high rate of speed after crashing through the gate at the residence.
The jury heard that 911 call on Jan. 18.
"My wife just drove off (inaudible) and crashed our gate," Whitt said. "My daughter and I were sitting here watching her and don't know what the hell she was doing; we came over here to where the flowers are and there was blood everywhere."
Robertson later reportedly told authorities she and her husband had been arguing and fighting throughout the day leading up to the incident.
While en route to the home, dispatch received another call from St. Thomas More Hospital stating a woman, later identified as Robertson, had reported she had been assaulted by Whitt.
She told authorities that after regaining consciousness from the attack near her garden at the family's home, she got in her car, rammed the gate and drove herself to the hospital to flee from her husband.
"She knows that if the defendant catches her, that's it," Deputy District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said during opening statements on Jan. 18. "She somehow miraculously makes it to the hospital."
The affidavit states the victim was bleeding from her head and had several bruises on her face, hands and arms.
She reportedly told authorities that Whitt had hit her with rocks, choked her and tried to suffocate her. The rocks reportedly were 10″ in diameter.
She said during the attack Whitt told her, "Just stop," "Just die already," and "Why don't you just die."
"Then he leaves here there, he goes in to take a shower," Hurlbert said.
Whitt also is serving a separate sentence for having a multi-year sexual relationship with his stepdaughter. In December 2017, he was sentenced to a total of eight years in prison. He accepted a plea deal for the case, which included charges of attempted sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and tampering with a witness or victim. His sentence also will be followed by a total of five years of mandatory parole, and protection orders against him will remain in place until his sentence is finished.
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