ST. GEORGE — After being ordered to turn himself in to the Washington County jail, a man sentenced last week for beating a woman in Diamond Valley was denied entrance due to the jail’s full capacity.
During a hearing held before District Judge Jeffery C. Wilcox in 5th District Court on April 12, Zeshawn Qamar Durrani, 37, appeared for sentencing on third-degree felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor assault.
The defendant initially was charged with aggravated assault, but the charge was enhanced to second-degree felony kidnapping one month after the attack took place. Under the terms of a plea agreement reached in February, the defendant pleaded guilty to the aggravated assault charge, as well as misdemeanor assault, while the unlawful detention and unlawful detention of a minor, as well as the threat of violence charge, were dismissed.
The case was filed following an incident reported Sept. 25, 2021, when officers responded to an assault reported in Diamond Valley, in which the defendant admittedly beat a woman’s head against the ground, struck her with a broom and choked her to the point she blacked out.
According to charging documents filed at the time of the arrest, the woman wanted to leave the residence following a verbal altercation with the suspect, which is when he reportedly held her inside of the home and beat her before breaking her cellphone and throwing it in the trash. A short while later, she was able to leave the house and drive to the police department to report the incident.
Wilcox first addressed the defendant by saying the victim wanted him to be put away for a long time to ensure he could not hurt anyone again, a position that had to be weighed against the good the defendant has done while on pretrial release, as well as the defendant’s criminal history and other factors.
The judge also brought up the time Durrani spent in prison in Washington State, which referred to a case filed in December 2011 involving the assault of a new mother and her 3-day-old infant. In this case, a verbal altercation escalated to a physical beating that left the baby with multiple skull fractures, an incident that was brought to the attention of St. George News in one of a series of emails received around the time of Durrani’s arrest last year.
The emails were from a woman who requested that her identity and location be withheld due to concerns over her and her children’s safety. The emails outlined the defendant’s criminal history that spanned across Oregon and Washington State, including the incident involving the young mother and her baby.
The woman further summarized what she and her children went through “on a devastating scale” when Durrani entered their lives. The experience resulted in the woman going into hiding with her children, a situation she said would remain unchanged to avoid any future violence involving the defendant.
The judge also mentioned the time Durrani served in Clark County, Nevada, adding that the defendant has earned a prison sentence for his actions in Utah as well.
However, gauging from past cases that resulted in prison sentences that were later reduced and inmates were released early, the judge said he has lost faith in the Board of Pardons and Parole, the agency responsible for the early release of inmates.
As an example, he said, in cases in which a defendant is sentenced to a 0-5 year prison term, the parole board reviews the case and, more often than not, the inmate is “back out on the streets much sooner – even a year or less.”
In the case of Durrani, Wilcox said the attack was not an accident, as Durrani had claimed, but a “terrible” act, adding that people can’t go around beating their partners with brooms, strangling them or knocking them around, and anyone who does so “needs to be punished.” He also said the defendant has shown little remorse.
The trauma left the woman “shattered,” he said, and it was “not something this court is going to overlook.”
The judge stayed the sentence of 0-5 years in Utah State Prison on the aggravated assault charge, as well as the 364-day jail sentence on the misdemeanor assault. He then sentenced Durrani to serve 165 days in jail in Washington County with credit for the 23 days he has already served.
Wilcox said he chose the jail sentence as opposed to sentencing the defendant to prison, since 165 days in jail would likely be more time in custody than what would happen if he sent the defendant to prison and left the release date up to the parole board.
The judge said the sentence also would serve to offer some form of protection to the victim in the case by making sure the defendant is locked up.
Durrani was ordered to turn himself in to Purgatory Correctional Facility by 10 a.m. on April 15. When the defendant was not included on the inmate list on Monday, St. George News reached out to Purgatory and confirmed the defendant was not in custody.
As it turns out, Prosecutor Rebekah-Ann Gebler said she was advised by the defense attorney that Durrani made three attempts to turn himself into jail to begin serving his sentence but was turned away by jail staff who said the jail was full.
Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke told St. George News that there has been a backlog of inmates serving commitments, as well as warrant arrests that were delayed as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions that were put in place in 2020.
Clarke also said his office has been working with the jail to avoid any further problems in the future. Wilcox was advised of the situation and a custody review hearing to schedule a date for Durrani to begin serving his sentence is scheduled to take place next week.
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