What Did Geoffrey Paschel Do?
According to the Knox County District Attorney’s Office, officers responded on June 9, 2019, to a domestic disturbance call in the Rocky Hill area of west Knoxville. Chapman told officers that Paschel had assaulted her in her home.
Prosecutors claimed Paschel grabbed her by the neck, slammed her head against the wall several times, threw her to the ground and dragged her. Paschel then took her cellphone and refused to let her leave, according to the DA’s office. She eventually escaped to a neighbor’s house after Paschel fell asleep.
Officers later documented a “large, raised bruise” on Chapman’s forehead, along with bruises and cuts on her back, arms and the inside of her lip. She was also diagnosed with a concussion.
At trial, Paschel gave jurors a different version of the night. He testified that Chapman was “very aggressive” and accused her of scratching and slapping him following a dinner outing. He also claimed Chapman ran into a door, fell over hedges outside her house and later left to call police.
The jury ultimately did not believe him, finding Paschel guilty in October 2021.
“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 Knox County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release at the time.
Prosecutors described Chapman as being ambushed when she returned from walking her dog, then pretending to be asleep after the attack while waiting for a chance to escape. A neighbor testified that Chapman was “scared” and “severely beaten” when she arrived at her door in the middle of the night, and that the two of them hid in the kitchen because they feared Paschel might follow her.
Chapman also testified about the attack, telling jurors that Paschel repeatedly bashed her face into stairs and walls as she screamed for him to stop.
“When I was screaming, I was trying to get away, but I couldn’t. He was too strong,” she said.
Geoffrey Paschel’s Prison Sentence and Appeals
In February 2022, after Paschel received a guilty verdict, Judge Kyle Hixson sentenced Paschel to 18 years in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors argued that Paschel qualified as a Range II offender because of prior convictions, including state drug convictions in Blount County and two federal drug trafficking convictions out of the Eastern District of Texas.
At sentencing, prosecutors also presented testimony from Chapman and Paschel’s ex-wife about alleged previous incidents of domestic violence. The DA’s office said prosecutors also showed jail video in which Paschel asked people to take his children to Chapman’s house in an attempt to convince her to ask the court for leniency.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals later summarized some of Chapman’s sentencing testimony, including an account that she believed Paschel would kill her during the June 2019 attack. She testified that the knot on her head took more than a month to heal, that neck pain lasted for at least a year and that she continued to experience anxiety and fear from that night.
Still, Paschel continued to challenge the case. He filed a motion for a new trial in February 2022, which was denied in June 2022. He then appealed, arguing in part that the evidence was insufficient, that the trial court should have granted mistrials over certain testimony and that his sentence was excessive.
In September 2023, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment. The court found that the state’s evidence was sufficient to support the convictions and rejected Paschel’s arguments for a new trial or shorter sentence. The appellate court also noted that the trial court had found the sentence necessary to “protect society from the Defendant; to avoid depreciating the seriousness of the offense; and to provide an effective general deterrent.”
Paschel currently resides in Tennessee’s Trousdale Turner Correctional Center with a release date of December 12, 2037, according to prison records.
