A jury in Colorado’s Moffat County District Court convicted a local pastor of felony assault this month. Parrish Terry, a pastor in Craig, was arrested and charged with 2nd Degree Assault Strangulation on June 15th, 2025, for an event that occurred with a juvenile. According to the Affidavit, the juvenile told Craig Police that Terry “attempted to grab him by the side” but the juvenile “slapped Terry’s hand away” and told Terry he didn’t want to be touched. In response, Terry started to chase the juvenile which at first he thought was “play fighting” but then the juvenile began to feel scared and locked himself in a room. Terry began pounding on the door and the juvenile opened the door at which point Terry “lifted him up” by the throat and hit his head against the wall. The juvenile told police he couldn’t breathe properly and that he had a bump on his head and a headache as a result of the incident. Terry was arrested because his “statements of the events seemed to evolve when confronted” and because the images observed on the juvenile’s neck and head were consistent with the juvenile’s statements. On March 5th, the jury in Moffat County District Court convicted Parrish Terry of Assault in the Second Degree, a class four felony, and Assault in the Third Degree, a misdemeanor. After the guilty verdicts were returned in the three-day trial, sentencing was scheduled for May 3rd. Following the trial, Assistant District Attorney Joseph Bucci said, “We are grateful for the work of the Craig Police Department and the diligence and attention of the jury in helping to achieve justice in this matter.”
