Former 90 Day Fiance star Geoffrey Paschel is set to spend nearly two decades behind bars after being sentenced yesterday for his domestic assault, aggravated kidnapping, and interference with an emergency call convictions.
A judge in Tenessee ordered him to spend 18 years in prison without the possibility of parole, which means he will have to spend all 18 years locked up.
Geoffrey, who has continued to maintain his innocence, had been facing a possible 12-20 years in prison, with his defense counsel advocating for the lightest sentence of 12 years and the prosecution making a case for 16 years.
The victim in the case, Kristen Wilson-Chapman, took the stand to deliver a moving victim impact statement. Her time on the stand was followed up by testimony from Geoffrey’s ex-wife of seven years, Allison Moon, who detailed her own claims of domestic violence at the hands of Geoffrey Paschel.
The case of whether Geoffrey’s previous felonious convictions for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute should count towards the sentence enhancement, and help to label him as a multiple offender, was disputed by the defense and argued by the prosecution.
After the judge excused himself to review the evidence and rules in the matter, he returned and ruled that his prior convictions would be considered.
Before the judge gave the sentence, Geoffrey gave a tearful statement and a plea to the judge.
The judge ultimately ruled to give Geoffrey 18 years behind bars after he offered a pointed explanation, saying, “As I’ve stated, this behavior towards these women is sick. It is sadistic. It goes beyond the desire to inflict physical harm on these women.
“It speaks of a deep psychological issue, I think, that Mr. Paschel has a desire to inflict as much emotional damage to these women as possible.”
A victim impact statement was given by Kristen Wilson-Chapman detailing past incidents of abuse
Kristen Wilson Chapman took the stand and gave a statement on Geoffrey’s abuse prior to the violent domestic assault incident on June 9, 2019, which led to his conviction.
In her statement, she detailed that the first time he physically hurt her was in September of 2018 after she and Geoffrey had been at a friend’s house for the day. On the way home, he reached over and grabbed her pinky finger and bent it all the way back as far as it would go. When she screamed, Kristen claimed that Geoffrey laughed it off, called her a drama queen, and said he and his brothers used to do that.
In a separate incident, Kristen asserted that Geoffrey grabbed her hair unprovoked while he was driving and pulled her over into his lap, and was trying to choke her. She said she only got him to stop when she pretended to pass out.
Kristen also talked about another domestic violence situation that took place in January of 2019. She reported that she was at his house and she confronted him about talking to two other women after they had been dating for a year and Geoffrey denied it.
Kristen said while Geoffrey was napping, she took his phone and unlocked it and hid in the bathroom and she took pictures of messages with her phone so she had proof he was cheating. Geoffrey came into the bathroom, ripped her out of it, took both phones, threw her on the ground, and smashed her phone all while his two sons were allegedly upstairs.
Another time Geoffrey hurt Kristen was then brought up, where he allegedly pushed her over into an electric fence on his property, threw her keys into the woods, then told her that no one was going to help her as she tried to run to the neighbors for help. She claimed that while she was walking to the neighbor’s house, who lived some distance away since Geoffrey lived in a rural community, Geoffrey hit her with his car.
The only other time Kristen called the police previous to the June 9, 2019 incident was when Geoffrey allegedly got mad at her and held her down on the bed, and shoved his phone into her mouth. She used the SOS feature on her phone to call 911 but Geoffrey noticed and hung up.
When speaking about the incident Geoffrey was convicted for, Kristen said she lost consciousness for about half of the assault for a few minutes at a time here and there.
She explained that she was in pain. She said, “A lot of pain was from when he was hitting my head into the floor, dragging me around by my hair. The hold he had on my neck was very painful, I remember thinking that he was going to kill me.”
Kristen said that her forehead injury was black and blue for a month and that she could feel scar tissue for several months and that she was diagnosed with a concussion.
When asked how Geoffrey’s violence has affected her, she answered, “I have a lot of anxiety and fear even with him in jail it’s still, it’s hard.”
Geoffrey Paschel’s victim spoke on why she did not terminate the relationship with him sooner
Geoffrey’s lawyer cross-examined Kristen and dug into why she didn’t call the police during or after Geoffrey allegedly assaulted her and questioned why she didn’t leave Geoffrey sooner.
She claimed to have not known what an order of protection was before being with Geoffrey because she had never previously experienced domestic violence.
Kristen also said that Geoffrey had been “charming” and “persuasive.” She reported that in the beginning he would cry, beg, and plead for her to take him back and tell her that he wanted to marry her.
She said in the later incidents there were threats, with Geoffrey telling her, “You will have nothing by the time I’m done with you, your family and friends will be gone.” Kristen claimed to have been “brainwashed at that point” and no longer thought she was worthy.
Geoffrey Paschel’s ex-wife took the stand to corroborate his history of domestic violence
Geoffrey’s ex-wife from 2006-2013 and the mother of his son Crusoe, Allison Moon, took the stand to talk about the violence that took place in their marriage.
She asserted that the verbal and emotional abuse started just a few months after they tied the knot.
Allison alleged that Geoffrey made many threats to kill her and to harm her family. She detailed one particular physical altercation that took place after she arrived home after spending time with her cousin and Geoffrey didn’t believe she was where she said she was.
She reported that he threw her into the bathroom and told her to stay while he took her keys and their son and drove away. Allison said she snuck out of the bathroom, called him to check on their son and he ended up coming back to the house where he then allegedly shoved her into a wall, threw her on the ground, strangled her, swung at her and hit the top of her head, in a struggle that went on for 20 minutes.
Allison continued by saying that he pulled her into the bedroom and started taking off her clothes and wanted to have sex and she attested that she was so scared about what he would do if she resisted that she let him force himself on her. After it was over, she said Geoffrey left.
Shortly after that, Allison had a friend come over to pack up her things and she took her son and moved to Florida to live with her parents.
The escalation of Geoffrey’s violent behavior was detailed more and she described that at first he was extremely apologetic, and promised it wouldn’t happen again.
After that, there were increasingly more violent things like stranglings, dragging by the hair, elbowing, and backhanding. Kristen claims that he made her believe that she couldn’t do anything. She described that her keys would go missing, her phone would be broken or he would disable her car.
She claims she felt isolated, estranged from friends, and that it was a fight to see her family. Financially, she said she didn’t have the means to get away from him and that he made her dependent.
The one time she called the police was when he showed up unannounced and snuck into her parent’s house in Florida and he tried to allegedly force himself on her before she was able to get away to a neighbor’s house.
Geoffrey Paschel spoke before the judge handed down a sentence
The judge took time to go through the details of Geoffrey’s previous convictions to determine if they were admissible by law to serve as evidence in Geoffrey’s sentencing enhancement.
The judge returned and said that he deemed the previous felonious convictions admissible and heard closing statements.
That is when Geoffrey stood up and addressed the judge by saying, “I am a 44-year-old man. I have a lot of love and hope left in me. I have dreams too. I have a beautiful family, beautiful friends. I’m a dad. I have children out there. I’m about to be a grandfather. I’m an uncle, nephew, son, grandson.”
He continued, “I respect Ms. Wilson-Chapman and Ms. Moon. She’s right I haven’t seen [Crusoe] in 5 years. I wish nothing but the best for them.”
He went on to say, “As far as punishment. Punished, I’m broken. I can rehab. Rehabilitation is a form of punishment, and I want to be better no matter what. My focus is on doing that via my family or being a better person all the way around.”
Geoffrey finished by saying, “So I ask that you have mercy on me, have mercy on my family and kids and show me leniency so I can be a productive member of society and be back in their lives.”
What the judge had to say right before delivering his sentence is shown in the video below, including that he was disgusted by Geoffrey’s behavior.
90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days airs on Sundays at 8/7c on TLC and Discovery+.