“Superior Court Judge Pat Monasmith sentenced Christopher G. Nichols [above] to 125 years in prison, despite the fact that he had no role in the 2011 killing of Colville resident Gordon Feist,” spokesman.com reports. Not exactly true (obviously). Back on June 28, 2011, Nichols and his mate Eric Booth broke into a home on Bradeen Road in Stevens County. The two men stole a firearms safe complete with firearms. That was the end of it for Nichols. Booth and two co-conspirators knocked on Mr. Feist’s door, pretending they’d run out of gas. The Vietnam vet was driving the threesome back to their car with a can of gas when Booth shot him in the head using one of the stolen guns. The murderers were caught, convicted, testified against Nichols and got their tickets . . .
Judge Monasmith sentenced Booth to 26 ½ years; co-conspirator Fellman-Shimmin to 25 years and co-conspirator Colette Pierce to five years (second-degree murder).
A jury found Nichols guilty of 21 charges, including gun theft, trafficking in stolen property and being a felon in possession of firearms. As a result of the state’s “Hard Time for Armed Crime” law enacted in 1995, the sentences of the gun crimes must be served consecutively, one after another . . .
[Stevens County Prosecutor Tim] Rasmussen said he believed Nichols’ sentence of 125 years was one of the longest sentences ever handed down for a non-murder conviction. But the prosecutor said he was satisfied to have the case resolved.
“Without the burglary of these firearms, this killing (of Feist) would not have occurred,” he said.
Fox News’ resident libertarian has been railing against minimum sentences recently, pointing out that they sometimes put people in jail for whom the law was not intended and crowd the U.S. prison system. Example given: the Florida woman sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot at her violent husband.
One about this one. Fair enough?