Urbandale Man Charged with Choking Iowa City Police Officer Will Spend One Month in Jail

A former University of Iowa student from Urbandale who pleaded guilty Sept. 21 to choking a police officer last year was sentenced to one month in jail today in a Johnson County courtroom.

Vanessa Miller of the Gazette reports Branden 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 Plummer's 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.”

Krei was at Friday's hearing and said the sentence was appropriate, reports KCCI.com.

"He apologized, and I hope he is sincere, I think he felt sincere in the courtroom today when he said that, it appeared that he did anyway, I hope he can get his life straightened out that's important to him also," said Krei in KCCI's story. "It's a big relief, the weight, I didn't realize there was weight, when the sentencing was completed, I did notice there was a difference, it felt good."

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 to which Plummer pleaded guilty.

Plummer attended Valley High School in West Des Moines.

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.