Fort Worth man sentenced for 2018 shooting of girlfriend, making threats from jail
A Fort Worth man who left his girlfriend critically wounded after shooting her last year has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for the violent crime, according to Tarrant County court documents.
Jaime Thongphanh received the sentence last week after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
Thongphanh shot his girlfriend, Heather Teter, with a shotgun on May 3, 2018, during a dispute at a Fort Worth home.
The 38-year-old Fort Worth man was arrested in October 2018.
Even while he was in custody, Thongphanh threatened his girlfriend, according to court records. In March, Thongphanh messaged Teter and threatened her by saying, “It ain’t gonna be Sunny No more. When I get out imma ride down on your b____ Azz.”
Throughout this year, Thongphanh sent letters to Teter asking her to sign an affidavit of non-prosecution, according to court documents.
Just days before he shot her, Thongphanh was accused of choking Teter after he threw her to the floor.
Prosecutors had noted Thongphanh had been abusive to Teter during their relationship from August 2017 to May 3, 2018, leaving her with black eyes, scars and busted lips.
On a typical day, there are more than 20,000 phone calls placed to domestic violence hotlines nationwide, according to statistics from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Teter talked briefly to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2018 about the relationship. She also wrote about it on a GoFundMe account while she recovered in a local hospital after being shot.
In 2017, Teter said she believed she had found the man of her dreams, a partner she had spent her whole life looking for.
“Things started out so good,” Teter said. “Not long after we decided to make things official, I noticed signs of abuse. No girl wants to believe it, though.”
He isolated her from her friends and she couldn’t work. The beatings started.
“I tried to leave but didn’t really have a safe haven to go to, and every time I did leave he would find me, collect me and bring me home with promises of doing better,” she said in the account. “This would last a couple of days and, of course, things would go back to the same old routine.”
Thongphanh was jailed in early 2018 for some outstanding tickets and a parole violation. He was gone for about two weeks, which she noted was very difficult because she had become dependent on him for everything — food, water and shelter.
Teter said she didn’t have people to fall back on for help.
“I was desperately praying for him to come home because I was tired of roaming the streets and searching for my next meal,” Teter said.
After his release from jail, Teter was beaten again and again. Her ex-boyfriend ordered her out of their home, but he took her back in the next day.
On May 3, 2018, Teter’s world turned even more horrible. Teter slept most of the day while her ex-boyfriend went to help a cousin with a garage door.
“He came swinging the bedroom door open, cussing at me, holding a shotgun,” Teter said. “He kept asking me why I lied to him. He thought I cheated.”
He brandished the shotgun, pointing it at her while she begged and pleaded for her life, she said. Teter said she believed he was on drugs.
“He told me to open my mouth and put the gun in there, but I refused, causing him to hit me with the gun and taunt me more,” she said.
At some point, he placed the shotgun on the side of her stomach under her ribs, Teter said in her written account.
“I remember thinking so fast he was about to kill me so I hit the gun down yelling for him to take it off me,” Teter said. “He pulled the trigger and shot me.”
Teter flew back against the wall.
“It seemed as if someone was pouring a pitcher of red Kool-Aid out of me,” she said referring to the blood coming out of her.
Teter spent several weeks in the hospital and had more than 10 surgeries.
This report contains information from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives.
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 11:19 AM.
