A combination of alcohol, anger and firearms left Rodger See with a bullet wound, and a lot of pain.
The same combination on Monday cost Cynthia Katherine See nearly 13 years behind bars.
Cynthia See, 44, was sentenced for first-degree assault in connection with her former husband’s February 2005 shooting at the rural Arlington home they then shared.
A Snohomish Count Superior Court jury in April found that Cynthia See intended to shoot her husband during a drunken argument. On Monday, she told sentencing Judge Kenneth Cowsert that she still loves the man.
“This was not an intentional act on my part,” See told the judge. “I never, ever intended to harm my husband.” She said the shooting happened in a quarrel that “got out of hand,” and she maintained that the gun accidentally discharged while she was pointing it at him.
The couple lived with guns in constant reach, and there was testimony at trial that Cynthia See often drank to excess. She had been drinking before Rodger See was shot.
“I’m so sorry that this happened,” she told Cowsert. “I’m so sorry.”
Rodger See told the judge he resents that he has been accused of being controlling as well as mentally and physically abusive toward his ex-wife. A judge about two weeks ago signed a divorce order for the couple.
“I truly believe Cynthia shot me with intent and premeditation,” Rodger See told Cowsert. “Today she’s up for sentencing and I ask you to give her the strongest sentence under the law that you can.”
Deputy prosecutor Paul Stern said he thought long and hard about what recommendation he would make for her sentence. He said her conduct was less severe than other cases he had seen, except for the instant when she pulled the trigger.
“Maybe the only accident was that she didn’t kill him,” Stern told the judge. He recommended the low end of the sentencing range, nearly 13 years in prison.
Defense attorney George Freeman of Everett wanted the court to depart from sentencing guidelines and send Cynthia See to prison for about 71/2 years, partly because she doesn’t have any previous criminal convictions.
“She is a threat to no one,” Freeman told the judge.
There’s no basis for a sentence below the standard range, Cowsert responded. For an evil person, Cowsert said, he would consider the high end of the range, more than 15 years.
“To your credit, you are not one of those people,” Cowsert told the defendant.
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