| No extra prison for killers
KAREN HUCKS; The News Tribune
When Pierce County prosecutors made plea deals with two white
supremacists, they intended to ask a judge to send the two to prison for
nearly the rest of their lives for stomping a homeless man to death.
But when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that only juries, not
judges, can give criminals extra-long sentences, it meant David Pillatos
and Scotty Butters could be locked away for no more than 31 years for
killing Randall Townsend last year.
Prosecutors don't think that was long enough. So last week chief
criminal deputy prosecutor Jerry Costello and deputy prosecutor Greg Greer
asked Superior Court Judge Lisa Worswick to let a jury decide whether
Pillatos and Butters should get longer sentences or to allow prosecutors
to back out of the plea agreements and start over.
On Tuesday, Worswick said no.
"The state is requesting I create a sentencing procedure which is
not in the statute, and I don't believe the Legislature ever contemplated"
it, the judge said. "I don't think I
have the authority to do this."
Worswick also refused to toss aside the pleas, which gave prosecutors
convictions without a trial and the defendants the possibility of
sentences shorter than life in prison in exchange for their testimony
against a co-defendant.
The judge said the two men had testified in the trial of co-defendant
Kurtis Monschke. Their testimony, she said, arguably helped prosecutors
win Monschke's conviction and send him to prison for life for aggravated
first-degree murder. So, Pillatos, 20, and Butters, 21, had lived up to
their end of the bargain, Worswick said.
Prosecutors are asking the Washington State Supreme Court to rule on
Worswick's decision before the men's sentencing Oct. 1.
Based on their criminal histories, Pillatos faces 22 to 30 years in
prison under the state's standard sentencing range. Butler faces 23 to 31
years.
It's one of several cases in question after the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled June 24 in the case of Ralph Howard Blakely, a Grant County man who
received more than seven years in prison for kidnapping his estranged wife
in 1998.
The judge in that case said Blakely had been deliberately cruel to the
woman, but the Supreme Court said the Constitution keeps judges from
tacking time onto people's sentences without a jury's input.
Local lawyers lament that county judges are resolving "Blakely
problems" in different ways.
"You can't adequately advise your client because it's all dependent on
which judge you get, and that's not justice," said Phil Thornton,
Pillatos' attorney. "The judge should be a nonfactor."
Prosecutors want clarification, too.
"If you have different judges in the same courthouse applying the law
differently," Costello said, "we've got an equal-protection issue."
He said he hopes the state Supreme Court will use Pillatos' and
Butters' case to give Washington courts direction on how to apply the
Blakely ruling. The Legislature could weigh in, too, changing laws about
sentencing ceilings or mandating jury proceedings for exceptional
sentences.
Pillatos and Butters admitted to beating and stomping 42-year-old
Townsend and throwing a boulder onto his face March 23, 2003, under the
East 26th Street bridge in Tacoma.
They, along with Monschke and Pillatos' girlfriend, Tristain Frye, were
charged with aggravated first-degree murder, which has a minimum sentence
of life in prison with no possibility of release.
Frye pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Prosecutors agreed to
recommend she serve less than 14 years. Pillatos and Butters pleaded
guilty in March to first-degree murder. The three testified in Monschke's
trial in May, and jurors convicted Monschke.
"We think these guys did more than Monschke did," Costello said. "All
along we expected to seek an exceptional sentence. The Blakely case for
these defendants was like winning the Lotto."
Karen Hucks:
253-597-8660
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Published
12:01AM, September 8th, 2004)
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The News Tribune - Tacoma, WA
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