Man who shot former co-worker near Cedar City motel sentenced to prison

Fifth District Courthouse, Cedar City, Utah, April 15, 2021 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

CEDAR CITY — A man accused of shooting and injuring another man near a Cedar City motel last year has been sentenced to prison in connection with the case.

Jaxton Joseph Saroff, 20, was sentenced to serve a term of 3-5 years in the Utah State Prison. Fifth District Judge Matthew L. Bell imposed the sentence during a hearing on Monday.

As previously reported in St. George News / Cedar City News, Saroff was accused of shooting one of his former co-workers in the back during an argument shortly after midnight on Aug. 4, 2021 on the street outside Motel 6, 1620 W. 200 North, Cedar City.

Although he was originally charged with attempted homicide, a second-degree felony, Saroff ultimately pleaded guilty to three third-degree felony counts as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. Those guilty pleas, which were entered on July 11, were felony discharge of a firearm, attempted manslaughter and possession or use of a firearm by a restricted person.

In imposing the sentence, Bell noted that Saroff is to serve between 3-5 years for the firearm discharge count and 0-5 years for each of the other two felonies. The court ordered that all three terms run concurrently.

Iron County Jail inmate Jaxton Joseph Saroff, then 19, appears via videoconference at an earlier court hearing in Cedar City, Utah on March 7, 2022 | Screenshot image courtesy of 5th District Court via WebEx, St. George News / Cedar City News

Saroff also was ordered to serve 180 days in jail for one count of possession or use of a controlled substance, a class B misdemeanor. That sentence was also allowed to run concurrently with the others, with Saroff being given credit for time already served in the Iron County Jail since his arrest nearly 14 months ago.

No additional fines or fees were imposed, although restitution was left open to allow for victims’ claims to be filed through the Iron County Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors also asked the judge for a continuous protective order for the victims in the case, which Bell granted.

After the hearing, Iron County Attorney Chad Dotson said Saroff’s claims that he had acted in self-defense were taken under consideration during the plea agreement negotiations.

“We considered the self-defense claim and all other facts and circumstances surrounding the shooting,” Dotson told Cedar City News. “The decision to amend the charge from attempted murder to attempted manslaughter was a result of that consideration.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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