Man who accidentally shot girlfriend asks for full sentence

EVERETT — Jonathan Duncan tried to give them something — after all he’d taken from them.

He asked the judge to honor the wishes of Payton Beck-Glessner’s parents and family. He asked to be sent to prison for as long as possible, contradicting his lawyer’s efforts to garner leniency for a young man born disabled because of his mother’s alcohol and drug use.

Duncan didn’t want mercy. He wanted to take back messing around with a handgun and killing his 19-year-old girlfriend. Beck-Glessner was struck in the chest Dec. 15 as she was sitting on her bed. The Bothell High graduate died in the hospital.

Her mother’s sobs filled a packed courtroom Wednesday as she tried to explain the hurt of knowing her daughter died alone. All she could do was ask the medical examiner to take good care of her girl’s body, the woman said.

“Losing a child is like losing your breath and never catching it again,” she wrote in a letter to the judge.

Duncan, 24, was sentenced Wednesday to 12½ years behind bars for the accidental shooting in an Everett apartment. He pleaded guilty in August to first-degree manslaughter with a firearm.

“Why should I get out? Because Payton doesn’t get another single breath,” Duncan said, asking the judge to lock him up.

He didn’t want his lawyer asking for less time, he said.

Tiffany Mecca, a lawyer with the Snohomish County Public Offender Association, had her client evaluated by a neuropsychologist. He testified at Wednesday’s hearing and said Duncan suffers from cognitive and social difficulties because of in utero exposure to alcohol. Mecca was in a difficult position. Her client didn’t want a break but it was her duty to advocate for him based on what she knew of his disabilities. She argued that Duncan wasn’t able to understand quickly enough that his actions were dangerous.

“Cognitive impairments significantly limited Jonathan’s ability to recognize the riskiness of his behavior when he was handling a loaded gun in the same room as his girlfriend,” Mecca wrote.

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Francesca Yahyavi pointed to Duncan’s interview with police. He downplayed his experience with guns but told detectives he knows they are dangerous, understands they can kill people.

At the time of the shooting, he wasn’t in a high-stress situation that called on him to make a quick decision. He and his girlfriend were hanging out, waiting for friends to show up. He chose to put his finger on the trigger with another person in the room, Yahyavi said.

“Payton’s death was senseless and completely avoidable,” she said.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Appel said he doesn’t doubt that Duncan has cognitive disabilities. He might be impulsive but this was not a rash act, the judge said. He knew the risk of handling a loaded firearm. Nothing about his condition impaired that understanding, Appel said.

“The pain that was caused as a result of the recklessness of the defendant is impossible to measure,” the judge said.

Duncan told police he was unfamiliar with firearms, saying it was the first time he’d handled a gun other than when he was a kid and tried using a shotgun. He claimed he’d found the gun in a ditch along Rucker Avenue and brought it back to the apartment.

Detectives found photographs of Duncan handling guns. They were on his social media accounts. Some of the photographs appeared to have been taken in his apartment. Beck-Glessner’s friend supplied police with images sent via Snapchat that had been taken about an hour before the shooting.

Beck-Glessner was on the bed with Duncan. His finger was on the trigger of the gun that would later take her life.

The blue-eyed teen was a talented artist who had enrolled in Toni and Guy Hairdressing Academy. She came from a big family that misses her hugs and smile.

Beck-Glessner picked the wrong boyfriend, her stepmother said. The family had been in a holding pattern, waiting for the young woman to recognize her value and choose a partner who was worthy of her, the woman said.

“She loved people who didn’t deserve her love,” her mother said. “Maybe that was her demise. He didn’t respect her life.”

She told Duncan to honor her daughter by making something out of his life.

Before he was led back to jail, Duncan thanked the judge for giving him more time behind bars than what his lawyer requested.

From the gallery, Beck-Glessner’s mom also spoke up. She thanked Duncan for taking responsibility for what he had done, all that he’d taken from them.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.