EVERETT— Less than three years after his release from prison on a murder sentence, a Mountlake Terrace man was sentenced this week to more time behind bars for a different crime.
Mark Downey, 54, pleaded guilty in August to third-degree assault of a child with sexual motivation.
In 2021, a woman called Mountlake Terrace police to report she believed her daughter had been sexually assaulted. The woman said her husband had tested positive for COVID-19, so they were staying with Downey in Mountlake Terrace.
He was charged with molesting one of the woman’s daughters in the middle of the night.
This week, Downey was sentenced to two years in prison followed by three years of probation.
At a sentencing hearing in Snohomish County Superior Court, the victim’s mother addressed the judge.
“My littlest one is a perky, trusting, loving, energetic girl,” she said. “Now she is more nervous around adults unless she’s known them for a long period of time.”
In 2005, Downey pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the killing of Kathy Lynn Erickson, 35, of Bellingham. He was released from custody in July 2020.
In addition to the murder, Downey had a previous felony sex crime conviction in 1998 out of Buffalo County, Nebraska, for sexually abusing another girl under the age of 10. Court records show he served more than 2½ years in prison for that offense.
Ellen Dennis: 425-339-3486; ellen.
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