Former Pinedale Teacher Gets 15-20 Years In Pen
Jeter sentenced Friday in Jackson district courtroom
by Joy Ufford

Former Pinedale High School teacher and FFA sponsor Shawn Jeter, 34, was sentenced Friday to serve 15-20 years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary after earlier pleading guilty to 10 counts of sexual assault in connection with incidents involving one of his students.

“He pled guilty to four counts of sexual assault in the second degree and he pled guilty to six counts of sexual assault in the third degree,” said Sublette County Deputy Attorney Lucky McMahon, who prepared the sentencing.

“He was sentenced to 15 to 20 years for each charge of second-degree assault and 10 to 15 years for each count of third-degree assault,”McMahon said Monday. “All are concurrent,” she said. “He’ll spend 15 to 20 years in the Wyoming State Pen.”

McMahon said Jeter did not participate in a plea agreement and had been set for a District Court trial in Pinedale on the charges in November when he pled guilty. “He pled cold,” she said. Jeter laid the “basis of fact” for his guilty pleas at that appearance and had been in custody, on bond, since then, she added.

Jeter, who led the Pinedale FFA to numerous judging awards and other ag-related achievements, was accused of having sexual relations with a teenaged Pinedale student during out-of-town functions as well as in Pinedale between 2004 and 2007, which resulted in charges filed in Sublette, Converse and Natrona counties earlier this year.

Jeter had tendered his resignation to the Sublette County School District #1 board, which discussed and accepted it during a personnel meeting earlier this year.

On Sept. 11, he was arrested in Pinedale and transported to Douglas where he was charged with second degree sexual assault. He was already at that time facing the above mentioned 10 counts in Pinedale.

Jeter had also been charged with two counts in Natrona County: third degree sexual assault and indecent liberties with a child, related to two alleged incidents in 2006 and 2007.

At Friday’s sentencing hearing in Jackson’s District Court before Judge Gary P. Hartman, the victim and her parents presented victim impact statements, according to McMahon. Jeter had five people make statements and he then made a statement on his own behalf as well, she said.

The sentencing hearing was held in Jackson because the judge had other sentencing hearings taking place there Friday.

Further information was unavailable at press time due to the holidays.