Fagan
A former math teacher and football coach received a suspended 364-day jail sentence Tuesday after he admitted to a count of gross misdemeanor child endangerment.
Ruhenstroth resident Chauncey Clayton Fagan, 38, was sentenced in connection with a shooting incident that occurred May 25, 2024.
“You’re a dangerous person,” District Judge Tod Young told Fagan at sentencing on Tuesday. “I’m shocked you’re not here on a felony. You could have killed your dad.”
Fagan must also participate in the Western Nevada Regional Drug Court program as a condition of his sentence.
Attorney Maria Pence sought probation, saying that Fagan is no longer using drugs and alcohol and has given up his firearms and is therefore no longer a risk to the community.
“Part of the reason this was so frightening was the firearms,” she said. “He entered treatment within 20 days of the incident. He was struggling with severe addiction issues.”
Pence said that Fagan’s wife had a miscarriage at eight months, “triggering” Fagan.
His wife said that before the loss, Fagan had been sober for six months but afterwards his behavior took a dark turn, and he started drinking.
Fagan was also using prescription pain killers due to a back injury and cocaine which led to increasingly violent behavior.
“There was no excuse for what happened,” Pence said. “He was drowning in addiction and in pain.”
Pence described his service in Western Nevada and the family’s need for his help caring for the children while his wife worked.
Fagan came to work for Douglas High School in August 2022, according to the district.
According to his Linked In Page he’d previously taught in Washoe County for a year and before that in Burbank, Calif.
Pence said Fagan will never teach or coach again and has to find another line of work.
Prosecutor Jim Sibley said that an evaluator found that Fagan presents himself in a sympathetic light but isn’t easily influenced by authority.
Sibley said that Fagan first attracted attention in summer 2023 when he was wandering the neighborhood with a shotgun. Sibley listed a series of events that led to his Nov. 14, 2023, arrest after he struck the neighborhood’s cluster boxes then drove home where he was found to have been drinking with firearms in the vehicle.
Sibley asked that Fagan be required to attend Western Nevada Regional Drug Court.
“I don’t need to be forced to do anything,” Fagan said. “I’m doing everything possible. I’m doing the best I can to try and make this right. I’m at rock bottom and it’s a lonely, miserable place.”
Fagan entered guilty pleas to driving under the influence, failure to report a crash and possession of a firearm by an intoxicated person on March 19 in East Fork Justice Court.
He also agreed to pay $8,235 in restitution for the mailboxes in connection with the collision.
Fagan previously admitted to domestic battery, discharging a firearm in a structure and possession of a firearm while under the influence, all misdemeanors.
For discharging the firearm seven times in the house, he received a 90-day jail sentence to be served on weekends before May 3, 2026, with another 90 days consecutive suspended for two years. He also faces another 180 days in jail suspended for two years on the condition that he complete all other conditions.
Young warned him that if he couldn’t complete the drug court program, he might well end up spending another year in jail.