A man who was shot in an ongoing dispute between neighbors in rural Greenwood will not serve additional jail time after pleading guilty in the case.
Jeffrey S. Weigle, 59, pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal recklessness and was sentenced to the advisory sentence of one year in jail, which he had already gotten credit for after being in jail for six months. Under state law, inmates get two days of credit for every day served in the county jail.
Weigle was charged after a shooting incident in June related to an ongoing dispute between him and the residents in the home east of Greenwood next to where he was staying. Weigle was shot four times and spent nearly a month recovering in the hospital.
Dean Keller, who lived next door, was not charged in the shooting because the prosecutor determined it was in self defense. The Kellers captured the incident on a home surveillance camera they kept to record incidents with Weigle.
But Weigle was charged because he was the first to pull out his weapon and wave it in the air, Johnson County Prosecutor Brad Cooper said. Keller fired his gun first, protecting himself and his wife who were outside working in their yard at the time, and Weigle then fired, Cooper said.
“He was charged with being the person who brought out the handgun and started waving it,” Cooper said. “A person could get hurt, and that person was him.”
“Waving a gun around gets you shot when the other guy is armed.”
Since the shooting, the Kellers also got a restraining order against Weigle and the criminal conviction helps with keeping that in place, Cooper said.
A protective order was originally put in place after Weigle threatened to kill Keller during his recovery at a Greenwood rehabilitation hospital, requiring jail employees to watch him at the facility until he recovered enough to be taken to the Johnson County jail.
In addition, Weigle would be disqualified from getting a gun because of the conviction, Cooper said.
