EVERETT — A Mountlake Terrace teen who took part in two vicious beatings within months of each other is headed to prison.
Darian Sharpe, 19, had plans to join the U.S. Marines after he graduated high school. Instead, Sharpe was thrown out of Mountlake Terrace High School in 2012 after severely beating a special education student and stealing $9 from the boy’s wallet. Six months before that incident, Sharpe pistol-whipped a man in a potential case of mistaken identity.
Sharpe pleaded guilty in May to second-degree assault and attempted first-degree robbery.
A Snohomish County judge Wednesday sentenced Sharpe to 2 1/2 years in prison. He faced a little over three years under state sentencing guidelines.
Sharpe already has served about eight months in jail. He was released on bail last year.
“Not only have the victims suffered along with their loved ones, but so have I. My selfish acts have taken away my dreams to join the Marine Corps and serve my country, the opportunity to finish my diploma and graduate with my friends, enjoying prom and other activities that most teenagers earn by acting accordingly,” Sharpe wrote in a letter to the Superior Court Judge Millie Judge.
Sharpe said he fell in with the wrong crowd in high school and they “caused me to act out.”
“The crimes that I have committed were made out of stupidity, anger, and simply not thinking,” Sharpe wrote.
Sharpe apologized to the victims, his mother and friends at Wednesday’s hearing.
In June 2012, Sharpe and a few other suspects lured a man outside and then tried to force him into a car. The defendant pointed a revolver at the man. When the victim refused to get into the car Sharpe ordered the others to “get him,” according to charging papers. The victim repeatedly was struck. Sharpe hit him several times in the head with the gun, court papers said.
The beating stopped after someone in the group asked the man if he knew “Chelsea.” The man told them that he didn’t and they had the wrong guy. The group drove off in a BMW.
In December 2012, a 16-year-old Mountlake Terrace student went into the school bathroom to wash his hands. Classmates said the boy was “a good kid who would always loan money to friends if they needed help.” His generosity created a rumor that he carried a large amount of money.
Sharpe recruited an underage classmate to help him rob the boy. Sharpe and the younger student attacked the victim in the bathroom. The boy was beaten unconscious. His jaw was broken and some of his teeth were knocked out.
“The victim in this case has been suffering since the day he crossed paths with the defendant,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Bob Langbehn wrote in court papers.
Not only was he physically injured, “there has been a tremendous emotional toll that has been taken on him,” Langbehn added.
The teen was reluctantly willing to testify, but Langbehn was concerned that it would create additional harm to him. Langbehn wanted to spare him the ordeal of a trial.
Sharpe’s convictions earned him a strike under the state’s persistent offender law.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com
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