Raymond Lane told police he wasn’t scared of whoever was parked on his Arlington property.
He was just fed up with the vandalism to the baseball field he’d built for his sons. He wanted to scare off the trespassers.
Lane grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun and loaded it for shooting trap. He pulled his truck across the road, blocking the only way out. He thought about calling the cops but didn’t want to wait for them. He fired four times at the parked car.
Lane, 57, pleaded guilty to assault. He was sentenced Wednesday to 2 1/2 years in prison during an emotionally charged hearing in front of Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Michael Downes.
One woman was forced to leave the courtroom during a break after she made disparaging comments toward one of the victims, a 16-year-old girl.
The woman yelled out, “They destroyed private property,” as she was led out by a Snohomish County marshal and sheriff’s detective.
The girl fled in tears. She didn’t come back.
Downes chastised spectators when he returned to the bench. The girl had the constitutional right to attend the hearing without being intimidated, he said.
Lane’s friends and neighbors initiated a letter campaign in support of the self-employed excavator operator. Some have publicly defended Lane’s actions, saying he had a right to protect his property.
Lane did not take that position as he stood before the judge.
“I’m real sorry for the decision I made,” Lane said, breaking down in tears. “I had no intentions of hurting them. Truly I didn’t intend to hurt anybody.”
The 16-year-old girl and a boy, 17, were inside the car that summer night in 2008. They told investigators they were looking at the stars. They heard what they thought were fireworks and then the back window shattered. They realized someone — they presumed the gunman — had parked a big rig across the exit.
The pair weren’t injured but they have suffered because of the shooting, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson said.
Lance Wessell, the boy’s father, told the judge his son had nightmares and flashbacks after the shooting. He dreamed of being hunted by a shotgun-wielding intruder, Wessell said. His son is an honor student with plans to get his pilot’s license and attend a military academy to become an aviator.
Matheson said he was concerned that the dozens of people who wrote letters and showed up to support the defendant didn’t understand the seriousness of what happened that night and how bad it could have been.
They don’t have any sense of “how close Mr. Lane was to standing up here for two counts of first-degree murder,” Matheson said.
Lane took the time to block the exit. He fired four times on a parked car that wasn’t causing any damage, Matheson said.
“You don’t get the death penalty for trespassing in this country,” the deputy prosecutor said.
The baseball field is more than just a piece of property to her client, Lane’s attorney Karen Halverson said.
The field, which Lane allowed Little League teams to use, also is a memorial to his son who died of a rare disease at 27. His son’s death was devastating, Halverson said.
“He felt like they were being disrespectful to his son,” she said.
Two of Lane’s friends told the judge the defendant is a kind, generous man who has suffered because of his son’s death. One lapse in judgment, however, should not define him, Penny Protheroe said.
Downes acknowledged Lane may have been frustrated if he believed his property was being vandalized, particularly since the field was a memorial to his son who died too young. However, the defendant had options besides shooting at a parked car, the judge said.
“You can’t shoot at people who are just sitting on your property,” Downes said. “Mr. Lane may be the greatest person on the planet, but those children didn’t do anything but sit there.”
The judge also said he recognized that Lane knows what he did was wrong and that his actions have consequences.
Downes explained to Lane’s supporters it wasn’t within his power to simply give the defendant community service as some had requested.
Lane in April pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and third-degree assault. The law requires Lane to serve at least 18 months in prison because he committed the assault with a firearm.
“If you pick up a gun and shoot at someone, it comes as no particular surprise you can get convicted and no surprise you can go to prison,” Downes said.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.
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