Man sentenced for killing girlfriend

Published 11:08 pm Thursday, September 11, 2008

EVERETT — A Lake Stevens man who strangled his girlfriend in front of his teenage son was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday.

Terry Calvin Van Allen, 47, sobbed as he apologized for putting Clella Colson in a fatal “sleeper” hold in April 2007.

“I’m just really sorry,” he said. “I had no intent.”

Van Allen in July pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and to violating a court order that had barred him from having contact with the victim.

He faced up to eight years in prison if he’d gone to trial and been convicted as originally charged with first-degree manslaughter. Under the agreement that avoided a trial, Van Allen waived his right to object to a five-year sentence — the maximum allowed for the crimes he admitted to.

Van Allen maintained he was restraining Colson to protect his then-14-year-old son from being assaulted by her.

He held the woman down and deliberately squeezed her carotid artery, a procedure that deprives the brain of blood flow and can rapidly trigger unconsciousness.

Van Allen’s attorney, Mark Mestel, said the experts concluded that Colson died because Van Allen blocked blood from reaching the woman’s brain for too long.

Colson left behind a 16-year-old son. Van Allen has two teenage boys.

It was a dysfunctional household with plenty of drinking, drug use and domestic violence that was perpetrated by both adults, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight was told.

“An outsider looking in could see that this relationship was going to end in some type of tragedy,” Mestel said.

Marie Colson, the grandmother of the slain woman’s son, said the teen has been robbed of the opportunity to spend time with his mom outside of an abusive setting. Clella Colson was struggling to break free from the hold that drugs, alcohol and Van Allen had in her life, she said.

Police were called to Van Allen’s Lake Stevens home April 28, 2007. His son reported that his father’s girlfriend was unconscious.

The teen later told police he had punched Colson during an argument and she attacked him, court documents said. Van Allen ultimately acknowledged that he grabbed the woman and tried to render her unconscious by pinching off the blood supply to her brain, documents show.

She was dead when paramedics arrived.

The couple had a history of domestic violence. Van Allen had at least three arrests since 2004 for hurting Colson. Each time, alcohol was involved.

Judges had ordered Van Allen in the past to stop seeing Colson.

Colson at least twice asked the court to lift the no-contact orders, insisting that Van Allen wouldn’t hurt her.

On Thursday, the judge noted that he lacked the power to do the one thing everybody touched by the killing wished was possible: to restore Colson’s life.

“She’s dead,” Knight said. “Her son is without a mother. Your sons will be without a father. Nobody ever wins in something like this.”

Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.