30-year sentence in man’s killing
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, November 15, 2005
On Oct. 10, 2004, James Michael Morrison went to the home of his former sister-in-law in Marysville, broke a window pane and reached in to unlock the door.
He pushed the woman out of the way, striking her on the head with a .40-caliber pistol, and hurried down the hall looking for Jay Harmon, 36.
Morrison found Harmon, who appeared to be just getting out of bed, leveled the pistol and shot him numerous times, killing him.
For that act of rage, Morrison, 40, of Everett will spend the next 30 years in prison.
Morrison pleaded guilty Aug. 26 to one count of first-degree murder, and Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne sentenced him on Tuesday.
The shooting happened after Morrison became upset with the relationship Harmon had with his brother’s ex-wife.
“The defendant’s criminal history clearly shows him to be a man that easily resorts to violence to solve what he perceives are injustices,” deputy prosecutor Halley Hupp told Wynne.
Although Morrison clearly knew what he was doing, the court was told, mental illness may have contributed to the shooting and a series of misdemeanor and felony assaults in his past.
Hupp recommended the middle of the sentencing range, 30 years.
Defense attorney Pete Mazzone started to speak on behalf of Morrison, who goes by his middle name, Michael.
“It would be incorrect to say Michael Morrison is an evil person,” Mazzone said. “He clearly is not.”
With that, Morrison interrupted Mazzone and told the judge: “I don’t want anyone speaking on my behalf.”
He also told the judge that nothing anybody would say would “validate” what he did.
Morrison clearly planned the shooting, purchasing a gun the week before and making sure that his two nieces were out of the apartment, Hupp said. He made three trips to the Marysville apartment that weekend before finding Harmon there, the prosecutor added.
Before he left the apartment, Morrison shot and killed the family dog, a collie-mix named Max, and fired two more shots in the kitchen in the direction of his former sister-in-law. He told Marysville officers he wasn’t aiming at her specifically.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
