Man sentenced to jail for holding mother, two children hostage

Man sentenced to jail for holding mother, two children hostage

(File photo)


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

AMERICAN FORK — A Pleasant Grove man who held a mother and her two small children hostage at gunpoint while claiming he was protecting them was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail.

Prosecutors say Robert Eugene Shepperd, 28, who was later determined to have a blood-alcohol content of .230 or nearly three times the legal limit, went into his neighbor's apartment on Nov. 4, forced the father out at gunpoint and locked himself inside with the man's wife and two small children for seven minutes.

"Robert claimed he was going to protect them, as he believed the adult male was abusing and harming them," according to a Utah County Jail report.

After several minutes, the mother convinced Shepperd to let her children leave. He, too, eventually left and was later arrested by police.

The incident is Shepperd's only criminal offense. Both the prosecution, defense and even 4th District Judge Christine Johnson concurred that the likelihood of him reoffending is small.

The judge received two sentencing recommendations, one from Adult Probation and Parole for 210 days in jail, and the other from the defense for 96 hours of community service.


This offense requires a harsher punishment. If it screws up Mr. Shepperd's life a little bit, that's his fault. It's called consequences. He has no criminal history, but he is sure starting off with a bang — literally.

–Christine Scott, prosecutor in the case


But prosecutor Christine Scott, who had strong words for Shepperd, said sometimes it isn't about whether a defendant will reoffend. She said his was a crime that warrants prison time.

"This offense requires a harsher punishment. If it screws up Mr. Shepperd's life a little bit, that's his fault. It's called consequences," she said. "He has no criminal history, but he is sure starting off with a bang — literally."

Scott called the recommendation of 96 hours of community service "absurd" and 210 days in jail "incredibly generous."

"Quite frankly, this is a prison offense," she said.

Scott said the seven minutes of being held at gunpoint felt like 70 years to the two young girls who can still describe the weapon in detail and continue to be traumatized by the event.

"As Superman as he thought he was, (Shepperd) knew he needed to lie to police," Scott said. "The only threat to this family was Mr. Shepperd."

Shepperd noted to the court that he had a good support network at home, as well as employment. He asked the judge for the chance "prove the prosecution wrong."

"I understand I made a huge mistake. I shouldn't have put myself in the position I put myself in," Shepperd said. "Since then, I have tried to do everything to straighten it out."

Johnson said she didn't want to take Shepperd's social connections away from him or make him more of a criminal with a harsh sentence. But she also noted that she was "disappointed" with the defense's sentencing recommendation.

Shepperd was sentenced to six months in the Utah County Jail with the possibility of being released early for good behavior. He was ordered to report to jail by next Tuesday, his 29th birthday.

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Pat Reavy

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast