A woman who was kidnapped on her lunch break told a judge Thursday she didn’t know whether she would live or die Nov. 22 when a stranger hefting two baseball bats and a knife accosted her while she was vacuuming her car.
The man, Timothy David Walker, 39, of Lynnwood grabbed her by the hair and smashed her face into the steering wheel of her car. Then he held a knife to her throat, forced her into the passenger seat of her car, and they drove back and forth on Highway 99 for about an hour.
“I did not know if I would live to see my family again,” she told Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Bowden. “I’m here to put a face on a crime.”
The judge responded by sentencing Walker to 41/2 years in prison for second-degree kidnapping and second-degree assault. It was the maximum penalty under the law, but the judge told Walker it wasn’t enough to protect the community or hold him accountable for what he did.
On April 21, Walker pleaded guilty to the two offenses. At the time, public defender Marybeth Dingledy and deputy prosecutor John Adcock agreed to a term of nearly six years.
Later, Dingledy said her law research showed the figuring of Walker’s sentencing range was wrong because both crimes had been used in the complicated formula that determined the sentence.
She argued Thursday that the law required the judge to consider the assault and kidnapping as part of the same conduct, which reduced Walker’s sentence.
“Although it may be an unpopular decision, it’s the right decision,” Dingledy told the judge.
Adcock argued that the crimes were separate conduct, and the longer sentence was appropriate.
Bowden said recent state Supreme Court decisions put judges in a tough spot in deciding the issue, but added, “I’m bound to give the benefit of the doubt to the defendant.”
The woman who was kidnapped was on a lunch break from a Lynnwood retail store at the time of the attack. She had driven to a service station in the 14800 block of Highway 99 to clean her car when she was accosted.
She eventually persuaded Walker to drive her back to the service station and let her go.
Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies said that when they arrested him, Walker commented, “She was a nice girl, so I let her go.”
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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