22-year-old faces life in prison under 3-strikes law

Published 1:30 am Saturday, July 30, 2016

EVERETT — Prosecutors recently took steps to put a 22-year-old man behind bars for the rest of his life under the state’s three strikes law.

Jassiem William Hawkins is accused of stealing a cellphone and hitting a man on the head with a handgun in an Everett parking lot. Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Matt Hunter recently charged Hawkins with first-degree robbery for the July 1 incident.

Hawkins already has two second-degree robbery convictions, strike offenses. The first came when he was just 18. He and two other men used a BB gun to rob a man of laptop computer and $80 worth of marijuana, according to court papers. He was sentenced to six months in jail.

A year later, Hawkins pleaded guilty to another second-degree robbery charge. Prosecutors alleged that Hawkins lured a medical marijuana seller to Everett and robbed him at gunpoint. He was sentenced to just over a year in prison. He was 19.

If Hawkins is convicted of a third robbery charge, the law mandates a life sentence without the possibility of release.

Hunter said he charged Hawkins with robbery “because it fairly and most accurately reflects the conduct he is accused of committing, and for which there is probable cause to believe he did commit.”

The deputy prosecutor said at the time he files a case not every detail about the defendant’s circumstances is known to him. He keeps an open mind as more information becomes available, he said.

Court records indicate that Hawkins has struggled with a substance abuse problem dating back to when he was a juvenile.

“I understand that just because the Legislature said we can do something, it does not always mean that we should,” Hunter said. “Persistent offender laws are particularly ripe for application of that philosophy because the outcome of any third-strike case can have a significant impact on defendants, victims and society.”

Washington’s three-strike law, passed by voters in 1993, was the first in the country and came on the heels of horrific and highly publicized crimes committed by habitual offenders.

Under the law, a number of violent felony crimes are labeled “most serious offenses” and categorized as “strikes.” That list hasn’t been updated since voters passed the law.

Legislators passed a similar law in 1996, specifically targeting sex offenders. Under that law, anyone who is convicted of two sex crimes on separate occasions also faces a life sentence.

There have been efforts over the years to amend the three-strikes law, including removing crimes such as second-degree robbery from the list. People can be charged with second-degree robbery even if they weren’t armed and didn’t physically harm anyone.

Legislation also has been proposed to allow three-strike offenders convicted of certain lesser felony crimes to seek review of their sentences by the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board after 15 years.

Opponents of tweaks to the law have said voters sent a clear message that they want habitual offenders off the streets for good. They also pointed out that inmates can seek clemency from the governor, an elected official accountable to voters.

The application of the law has evolved in Snohomish County. Prosecutors have pursued fewer third-strike convictions than when the law first hit the books. The cases are costly and heavily litigated, Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe said.

In the law’s infancy, prosecutors claimed their hands were tied. A few of those early cases created “some results that, frankly, I’m not proud of,” Roe said in 2012. Prosecutors are using more discretion than when the law was first enacted, he said.

They can seek other charges that aren’t strike offenses that will result in guilty pleas and long prison sentences, Roe said.

Public defenders have called the statute bad law that paints all defendants with a broad brush that fails to take into account individual circumstances.

Hawkins, who turns 23 later this year, pleaded not guilty to the charge. He remains jailed on $100,000 bail.

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