A Lincoln man has been sentenced to 26 to 33 years in prison for stabbing a Lincoln police officer and trying to stab a second in a 2018 confrontation in his home fueled by a combination of methamphetamine and mental health issues.
The incident ended with Christopher Brennauer being shot, along with an officer who was hit by friendly fire.
"Ultimately, this was a violent incident, and you have a history of violence, both in and out of custody," Lancaster County District Judge Ryan Post told Brennauer on Tuesday.
It was Brennauer's second sentencing for what happened Dec. 29, 2018, when police responded to a 911 call from his girlfriend saying Brennauer was mentally ill and threatening to harm himself with a knife. When police tried to take him into emergency protective custody,  he resisted, resulting in an officer receiving a stab wound and Brennauer receiving two gunshot wounds to his back.
Another officer also was shot by friendly fire and later retired, citing the injury.
Due to competency issues and the COVID pandemic, Brennauer didn't go to trial until 2021, where his public defenders raised an insanity defense, arguing that officers, rather than deescalating the situation and getting help for a mentally ill man in crisis, rushed in, cornered him and quickly pointed Tasers and a gun at him.
The jury found him guilty of four felonies: possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person, two counts of assault on an officer and use of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony.Â
And Brennauer was sentenced to 57 to 79 years.
But the Nebraska Supreme Court overturned his convictions and sentence last year, citing potential confusion over the instructions given to the jury in relation to the insanity defense and temporary insanity caused by voluntarily drinking, taking drugs or other "mentally debilitating substances."
While temporary insanity caused by voluntary intoxication is not a complete defense to a crime, one may be both intoxicated and insane, the court said.
The case was sent back for retrial, but this time Brennauer, now 49, pleaded no contest to charges that topped his potential sentence at 33 years: two counts of terroristic threats, possession of a deadly weapon by prohibited, attempted second-degree assault on an officer and third-degree assault on an officer.
Post sentenced him at the top end and gave him credit for the six years he's been in the hospital, the county jail, state prison and the Lincoln Regional Center ever since the incident.Â
Brennauer has a long history of mental illness that dates back to when he was 12. In 2003, he was found not responsible by reason of insanity for an attempted robbery and hospitalized at the Lincoln Regional Center until 2011. He was re-hospitalized in 2013 for failing to take his medications and for using illicit substances.
By 2018, he was out and using methamphetamine, alcohol and cannabis.
He had been on a waiting list for a residential program on Dec. 29, 2018, the night the 911 call sent police to his door.
In brief comments Tuesday, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Chris Seifert asked Post to consider the very serious nature of the incident, and the victim impact statements offered at the prior sentencing.
He called Brennauer a high-risk to reoffend and asked for consecutive sentences on the counts.
Chief Deputy Public Defender Shawn Elliott said: "It's very clear that Mr. Brennauer has a significant mental health problem that dates back well before his commitment to the LRC (in the 2003 case)."Â
But, he said, by entering a plea, a potentially difficult retrial was avoided.
Brennauer said due to his mental health he was distraught and didn't know what was going on with his life and was at a loss for words.