UPDATE: A judge ordered reality star Geoffrey Paschel to serve 18 years in prison without the possibility of parole, according to a Feb. 3 press release from the District Attorney’s Office of Knox County, Tenn.
The 44-year-old, who appeared on 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days in 2020, was convicted of aggravated kidnapping and domestic assault involving his fiancée. He grabbed her neck, slammed her head against a wall and “refused to let her leave her residence,” per the release.
District Attorney Charme Allen said in a statement obtained by E! News, “With the sentence in this case, no other victims will be abused by this offender for a long time.”
Paschel’s attorney, Greg Isaacs, tells E! News in a statement, “Geoffrey Paschel continues to maintain his innocence and intends to file a motion for a new trial in the very near future. Afterward, our firm intends to pursue an appeal on Geoffrey Paschel’s behalf.”
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90 Day Fiancé franchise alum Geoffrey Paschel has been found guilty of kidnapping and domestic violence stemming from an alleged confrontation with one of his exes. He has been booked in jail and is awaiting sentencing.
A Knox County, Tenn. jury reached the verdict on Thursday, Oct. 7, following a two-day trial for the 44-year-old reality star, who appeared on season four of TLC spinoff Before the 90 Days in 2020 with two other love interests.
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Prosecutors told the jury that on June 9, 2019, police responded to a call of a domestic disturbance in a Knoxville home. There, they found Paschel and his then-partner Kristen Wilson Chapman, who told officers he assaulted her in the residence.
“Paschel grabbed the victim by the neck and slammed her head against the wall several times,” the Knox County District Attorney General’s Office said in a statement. “She was also thrown to the ground and dragged. Paschel took the victim’s cell phone and did not allow her to leave the residence. The victim fled to a neighbor’s house after Paschel fell asleep. Officers noted a large, raised bruise on the victim’s forehead along with bruises and abrasions on her back, arms, and the inside of her lip. She was also diagnosed with a concussion.”
The statement added, “At trial, Paschel testified that the victim’s bruises were self-inflicted, but the jury discredited his testimony and found him
guilty-as-charged.”
The reality star was booked in jail on charges of domestic assault, aggravated kidnapping, interference with an emergency call and vandalism, according to public records obtained by E! News.
During the trial, Wilson Chapman testified that on the night in question, she and Paschel had dinner and drinks at a restaurant before returning to her home. She said the reality star stayed inside the house and she walked her dog. She said they planned to go out again and meet a friend, and said she texted her while standing outside and then walked back home.
“The next thing I remember, he was beating me,” Wilson Chapman said about Paschel. “He had me by the back of my head and was hitting my face into the floor and I was screaming for him to stop. From there, he dragged me up the stairs…he was dragging me by my head and by my hair.”
Wilson Chapman testified she later “blacked out” again. “The next thing I remember, I was in the corner of my kitchen and he was shoving me up against the wall and then he got me back down on the floor in the kitchen,” she said. “He was hitting my head on the floor in the kitchen and I lost consciousness again. When I regained consciousness…I was sitting on the couch [in the living room] and my face was dripping blood down my chin and onto my couch and he was pacing, not saying anything, but just pacing behind the other end of my sectional, which had been overturned.”
Wilson Chapman said Paschel eventually told her to go to bed and they both went to her bedroom. “I did because I didn’t want it to continue,” she said. “The abuse.”
Paschel’s ex testified that while they were in bed, she pretended to sleep while he went through her phone, then apologized and tried to touch her. She said she “jumped” and “ran straight out the front door” to a neighbor’s house and asked her to call 911. She said the police arrived and she was treated at the hospital.
In his testimony, Paschel said his relationship with Wilson Chapman in the night in question was “a little off,” adding, “In any relationship, you have your ups and you have your downs.”
He testified that they spent five hours together at a restaurant, during which they had cocktails, and then returned to her home, both of them “drunk.” He said he “ended up walking her dog” and that while outside, he phoned his son to check on his own pets. He said that when he returned, Wilson Chapman confronted him and “aggressively” confronted him, “thinking that I was actually talking to another female out there.”
Paschel said they got into an argument and that she later “ran smack into the door” while leaving the house, and then returned inside, appearing with “blood coming out of her nose.” He also testified that later that night, she “ran into the wall” and “bounced around the wall.”
He said they eventually went to bed together and Wilson Chapman woke up and exited the house, telling him she was calling the police. “I just chalked it up that she was drunk and was going to walk it off and walk back,” Paschel said. “And roughly 30 minutes later, the police showed up.”
Because Paschel has a criminal history—he has past convictions for drug possession with intent to sell as well as federal drug trafficking, he faces a sentence for his latest convictions of 12 to 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 3.
This article was first published on Oct. 8, 2021, at 11:20 a.m. and updated on Feb. 3, 2022, at 7:19 p.m. after his sentencing.
For more information on domestic abuse or to get help for yourself or someone you love, visit the website for The National Domestic Violence Hotline (http://www.thehotline.org/) or call 1-800-799-7233.
