SAN JOSE - A man convicted earlier this year of an ambush shooting that wounded a Mountain View police officer during a 2022 DUI stop was sentenced Wednesday to a 50 years to life sentence.

Jeffrey Thomas Choy, 43, of Union City, was convicted May 6 of attempted murder and assorted gun charges. The attempted murder sentence, which consisted of consecutive 25 years to life terms for the charge and a gun enhancement, was the maximum term he could have received for the shooting.

Choy was also sentenced to a separate four-year sentence for illegally having the gun used to shoot Detective Raymond Clutter on July 16, 2022, based on him having prior felony convictions at the time.

At the sentencing Wednesday, the court gallery was filled with members of the Mountain View Police Department, as Choy, clad in a brown jail-issued top and red pants, looked toward Judge Brian Buckelew.

Clutter, who has since returned to police duty, told the judge Wednesday about the ongoing trauma he suffers from the shooting in calling for a maximum sentence.

 I stand by this court today not just as a survivor of violent crime but a man whose entire life was shattered … the moment the defendant pulled the trigger,  Clutter said.  I was forced to face the stark terrifying possibility that I would never see my wife or children again. The psychological aftermath of almost dying is a slow, agonizing burn. 

He continued to describe how the shooting disrupted his ability to be a reliable police officer and family man, saying he is  trapped in a state of exhausting hypervigilance  at work and home, calling it an  invisible exhausting burden that never leaves me.  He also described how the shooting also derailed an ascending Army career and put him through an adversarial workers compensation process he said worsened his trauma.

 Every interaction is shadowed by the exhausting effort to mask my internal struggle,  Clutter said.  The version (of me) that returned home to my family is fundamentally different … The defendant stole my peace, my health, and my family stability. 

Judge Buckelew said in court Wednesday that

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