Steamboat Pilot & Today

Two years were added to a man's 12-year prison sentence after he threw a pingpong paddle through a window at the Routt County Jail.

Todd Griffith, 38, of Steamboat Springs, was sentenced Friday to the additional time, which will be served consecutively with the 12-year sentence he received in December for kidnapping and beating his ex-girlfriend and then breaking into her brother's house and damaging his belongings.

In District Court on Friday, Griffith pleaded guilty to felony criminal mischief.

District Court Judge Michael O'Hara also ordered Griffith to pay $1,066 in restitution costs to cover damage to the window.

At the time of the pingpong paddle incident, Griffith was awaiting trial for the kidnapping and beating charges. During Friday's hearing, Griffith said he did not mean to break the window when he threw the paddle, but admitted that he knowingly threw the paddle.

"I don't deny breaking the window, but it was an accident," Griffith said.

Griffith's public defender Trevor McFee said his client did not want to take the risk of going to trial, but Griffith thought he committed a reckless act rather than a criminal one.

Griffith was arrested Dec. 16, 2003, on charges of kidnapping and beating a former girlfriend.

In October, a 12-person jury found Griffith guilty of first-degree burglary, second-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault, third-degree assault and criminal mischief.

The jury did not find Griffith guilty of the district attorney's charges of second-degree attempted murder or false imprisonment.

Physical evidence and testimony from witnesses convinced the jury that Griffith broke into the Tamarack Drive home, beat the former girlfriend and then forced her out of the residence and dragged her from Tamarack Drive along the Yampa River Core Trail and to his trailer in Dream Island Mobile Home Community.

A police detective said he saw two sets of footprints in the snow along the bike path and two areas where it looked as if people had been struggling. Near these areas, he found the woman's shoes.

Police testified during the trial that when they saw Griffith leading the woman to his trailer, her clothes were so stiff and frozen that they looked like cardboard. The victim also was bruised badly, and her feet were severely frostbitten when police found her.

-- To reach Christine Metz call 871-4229

or e-mail cmetz@steamboatpilot.com