Font ResizeBRATTLEBORO -- A 30-year-old Guilford man was given a 24-to-32 month suspended sentence last week after he pleaded no contest to stabbing a man with a knife and assaulting a woman last year.
Zahariah Theodorou’s suspended sentence included 10 days behind bars and 50 days under house arrest as well as a long list of probation requirements.
Theodorou was initially charged with felonious aggravated assault with a weapon and misdemeanor domestic assault and reckless endangerment, which combined carried up to 17-and-a-half years behind bars. The charges were later amended to two counts of reckless endangerment and one count of disorderly conduct.
He pleaded no contest to both reckless endangerment counts and guilty to the disorderly conduct charge, according to court documents.
Deputy State’s Attorney David Gartenstein said 40 witnesses’ dispositions were reviewed in the case against Theodorou.
"Based on all the facts and circumstances, this sentence serves the cause of justice," he told the Reformer.
Investigation into Theodorou began after Brattleboro Police responded to the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital for a report of a stabbing victim.
According to the affidavit, a woman said she got into an argument with Theodorou and he threw an alcoholic drink into her eyes. She threw him out of the home, locked him out and sent a text message to Roger Nordheim, 24, a friend.
Theodorou
The woman told police she heard screeching tires along Washington Street and when she opened the door she found Nordheim bleeding from a wound in his stomach.
Nordheim said Theodorou just stabbed him and drove off. The woman got Nordheim in a car and they drove to the hospital.
Nordheim later told police that he walked to the woman’s apartment, saw Theodorou’s car and that Theodorou asked Nordheim if he wanted to fight him.
Both times he said no and when Theodorou asked a third time he got out of the vehicle and "poked him once" with the knife, the document states.
He said a second man, whom he couldn’t identify, got out of the car and threw him on his side, but he doesn’t believe the second man stabbed him.
During Theodorou’s probation, he’s not allowed to be cited, or charged with any act punishable by law, including city and municipal codes, can’t purchase or consume alcoholic beverages or regulated drugs, firearms or drive a motor vehicle without his probation officer’s consent.
He also can’t leave the state of Vermont without written permission from the probation officer.
Any violation of his probation could result in Theodorou having to serve the full 32-month sentence behind bars.
Josh Stilts can be reached at jstilts@reformer.com, or 802-254-2311 ext. 273.
