A Torrington man who brutally beat his ex-girlfriend as she held their toddler in her arms and fought to escape through a corn field last August was sentenced Monday to between 20 and 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $24,685 in restitution.
Andrew Atkinson, 27, apologized to his victims in Goshen County District Court during his Monday sentencing hearing.
His ex-girlfriend Natalie Blaise testified that she spent a week in the hospital with a collapsed lung, sutures, and a chest tube after the attack. She endured years of control, location-tracking and abuse from Atkinson as well, she said during a tearful speech before the court.
“We stand here today, 303 days after a crime that nearly left me dead in a corn field,” said Blaise. The crime culminates seven long years of abuse, control, and manipulation, she said.
“His desire to control me was relentless,” said Blaise. “I feel that, regardless of how long he goes to prison, I’ll always be in his sights.”
Even leaving her home still gives her anxiety, she said, “because he required me to report my every move to him.”
And while Atkinson was on the run, he locked her out of her social media, phone, email and other accounts, she said. That was because he controlled her technological devices, Blaise added.
She said she still hasn’t been able to restore her phone account and can’t simply cancel it because her mother’s phone number also hinges on that account.
Atkinson has claimed to have destroyed her laptop and other technological devices that contain important family photos, photos from her childhood and other mementos.
“This is especially cruel, as I cannot get those things back,” she said.
No Boot Camp For This One
Atkinson pleaded guilty prior to strangulation of a household member, aggravated assault and felony child abuse, according to statements given in court.
District Court Judge Edward Buchanan imposed nearly the maximum sentence: between four and five years in prison for an older strangulation felony dating back to 2016 on which Atkinson evaded justice for about eight years before turning himself in for his more recent crime; followed by eight-to-10 years on the aggravated assault charge and another eight-to-10 on the child abuse charge.
The judge layered those consecutively, meaning Atkinson’s sentence is 20-25 years.
Though he evaded justice for years on the 2016 charge, he turned himself in days after attacking Blaise.
Atkinson’s attorney Joe Bustos had asked the judge to impose a “boot camp” or youthful offender sentence. That’s a program for younger convicts in which they can complete a military-style program instead of going to prison, and they often receive a sentence reduction after completing the program.
That’s not appropriate for Atkinson, Buchanan said, citing the damage he did, Atkinson’s criminal history and the timespan over which he committed violent crimes.
“(It) was so violent in nature that it warrants a punishment that is equal for society’s demand for retribution, and a specific deterrence for you in the future,” said Buchanan. “And an example to others in our community that this type of activity absolutely, absolutely will be punished.”
As part of the plea agreement in the case, Goshen County Attorney Eric Boyer had agreed to stay silent rather than argue for a specific prison term.
Corn Field
Blaise also gave the court photographs of herself from after the attack, which the forensic nursing team in Cheyenne shot during her hospital stay.
The night of the attack, Blaise and Atkinson together drove away from a party at Atkinson’s mother’s home in Lingle, along with their 2-year-old child, says the case affidavit.
The pair had an argument, during which Atkinson pulled Blaise’s hair. He later pulled over again in a field and punched Blaise in the face repeatedly, then smacked her head with a handgun until she lost consciousness, says the document.
It says he squeezed her neck with his hands for about 10 seconds, until she lost consciousness.
When she regained consciousness, she picked up her toddler, exited the vehicle and tried to run north toward a barn.
She tripped twice while running, and Atkinson caught up to her, the document says.
He took their child and started to walk back toward the parked vehicle, wrote Goshen County Lt. Herb Irons in the document. Blaise ran back to Atkinson, and he allowed her to hold the child again, the document indicates.
At that moment, Atkinson shoved both mother and toddler, causing them to fall to the ground, then the trio walked back to the car and rode away with Atkinson driving.
He drove to the 7800 block of Road 27 where he again stopped the vehicle and made Blaise get out, then he punched and kicked her face and chest as she lay on the ground, the affidavit says.
He got into the vehicle and left.
Blaise stayed on the ground for about 20 seconds until she was sure Atkinson had gone, then she got up and ran into a corn field to the west, making it back to the highway.
Atkinson’s mother intercepted both mother and child and took them to the emergency room, the affidavit says.
“I walked into the emergency room doors the evening of Aug. 3 (2024) carrying my daughter,” recalled Blaise. She had a collapsed lung and “pain like I’d never endured.”
The fallout with Atkinson hit home in other ways: she’d lose the bonds she’d made with his family; she’d lose the seven years she spent with him and her daughter would lose her father, Blaise recalled from that night.
Now, Blaise still suffers from shortness of breath, anxiety, and fear, she said. Her ribs still hurt when her daughter pushes on them, Blaise added.
Blaise’s daughter “still randomly talks about the incident,” said the mother in court.
“Especially if we’re in the car at night, she talks about her dad screaming bad words, him hitting me, me trying to run with her; him leaving me on the side of the road as he took her with him,” she said.
Irons wrote that Blaise’s entire body was bruised and cut, including her feet. She also had two black eyes nearly swollen shut; her face was bruised with hematomas and appeared disfigured. She received 15 staples and four sutures to her head from being pistol whipped, says the affidavit.
The child had lacerations to her forehead that were treated and documented, the document says.
This Chance
Atkinson’s mother Robin Ladin told the court she does not condone what he did, but she pointed to “a big change in him” since his arrest, and his love for his two children.
She asked the court for mercy.
“He’s the son that always helped me out when my husband wasn’t around to do so,” she said. “I just beg that you have some kind of mercy on him – because I do need him around.”
Atkinson’s stepfather Luis Terrones submitted a written statement for the sentencing, which said Atkinson would “always” have employment with the family business if he were released. The statement emphasized that Atkinson turned himself in, and that his two children “mean the world to him.”
In The Canal
Atkinson was charged prior with property destruction after telling a different judge that he threw Blaise’s phone, computer and guns into a canal. That charge was ultimately dropped, but Atkinson was ordered to pay restitution on it as part of his plea agreement, Boyer told Cowboy State Daily in a Monday interview after the hearing. A burglary charge from 2016 was also dropped.
But the strangulation charge from 2016 was part of Atkinson's sentence Monday.
On Nov. 20, 2016, the Torrington Police Department sent officers to a report of a domestic assault. Responding officers found a woman with friends, crying with red marks and scratches on her neck, says the affidavit in that case.
She’d been hanging out with Atkinson, who was her boyfriend, at his mother’s Torrington home. He woke her early because he’d gone through her phone and was angry; he started screaming foul words at her, the affidavit says.
When she scrambled to get her things and leave, he scooped her up behind her knees and under her shoulders and dropped her on the concrete outside, the document says.
She cried on the concrete.
He returned to her, wrapped a belt around her neck and tightened it, the woman told police at the time. The document says that when she scratched at her own neck to loosen it he’d tighten it more.
Officers went to Atkinson’s friend’s house to find him, where someone spotted a male climbing out of the window and running across the back yard. Agents gave him numerous commands to stop but he kept running and “was never apprehended,” says the affidavit.
That was the charge Atkinson evaded for eight years.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
