EVERETT — An Everett man was sentenced Thursday to two months in jail for leaving a loaded gun within reach of his 3-year-old son. The boy shot himself in the mouth with the Ruger .380 firearm.
Everett District Court Judge Tam Bui also sentenced Jon Holzwarth to two months of electronic home-monitoring once he’s released from jail. He is forbidden from possessing any firearms for five years. He also can’t have any contact with his son, now 5, unless approved by a Superior Court judge as part of an ongoing divorce case.
Bui said she weighed the impact the shooting had on the young boy, along with Holzwarth’s response to his criminal actions, including his demeanor and statements to the court.
“You are not at a place to move forward in the best interest of (your son),” Bui said.
Holzwarth should spend time in jail for some self-reflection as that hasn’t happened in the months he’s been free, she said.
“What do you want from me?” Holzwarth said before Bui handed down the sentence.
The defendant said he lost his job and his house. He and his daughter are forced to live in an apartment. The publicity around the case has made it difficult for him to find work, he said.
“The media crucified me,” Holzwarth said.
He also doesn’t get to see his son. He and his wife are divorcing, and he is only allowed supervised visits.
“I just want this behind me,” he said.
A jury in May convicted Holzwarth of reckless endangerment, a gross misdemeanor. Jurors were convinced that Holzwarth should have taken steps to prevent the accidental shooting that severely injured his young son in 2014.
The bullet ripped through the boy’s upper lip and palate. Part of the child’s jaw was destroyed. The boy has undergone surgery and likely will need more surgeries to repair his jaw, his mother wrote in court papers filed in April.
Holzwarth testified at trial that he’d never witnessed his son scale the dresser and believed the gun was secure there.
Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives, however, turned up evidence that Holzwarth, 48, had been warned more than once that his son was able to reach the gun on top of the dresser.
Holzwarth’s mother-in-law also told investigators that before the shooting she dropped off several trigger locks and encouraged Holzwarth to secure his firearms. He told the woman he wasn’t going to lock up his handgun because he needed it for protection. Detectives found the locks still in their packaging when they searched the Lake Stevens house.
Holzwarth “built his life, his recreational life and professional life, around firearms,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Matt Baldock said Thursday. He portrayed himself as a gun safety expert.
“He should have known better. More than anybody else, he should have known better,” the deputy prosecutor said.
The shooting was an accident, but it was entirely preventable, Baldock said. It is only by providence or dumb luck that his son wasn’t killed and Holzwarth wasn’t facing a manslaughter conviction.
Holzwarth faced up to a year behind bars. Baldock recommended a six-month jail sentence.
A state Supreme Court decision limited what charges were available to Snohomish County prosecutors. The high court in 2014 dismissed a third-degree assault charge against a Bremerton man whose loaded gun was picked up by his girlfriend’s young son. That boy brought the gun to school and it discharged while in his backpack. The gunfire injured one of his classmates.
In that case, the court concluded that the man leaving a loaded gun out wasn’t the direct cause of the assault on his classmate.
Holzwarth’s attorney argued Thursday that sending his client to jail wouldn’t serve any purpose. He has been punished outside the court case, losing his family and his livelihood.
“It would be a wasteful use of the system and its scarce resources,” attorney Jesse Corkern wrote in court papers.
His client never intended to harm his son. The attorney urged Bui not to impose the no-contact order, saying Holzwarth isn’t a danger to the child.
“We should not use this as an opportunity to put our foot on Mr. Holzwarth’s head and push him further under water,” Corkern said.
Holzwarth’s son and a 4-year-old were playing alone in the master bedroom Nov. 21, 2014. Holzwarth heard a loud noise and found the kids locked in the master bathroom. He kicked open the door and saw his son bleeding from his mouth. The child told his parents his friend shot him.
He later told his mom that he had climbed the dresser, picked up the gun and pulled the trigger. Detectives found the gun buried under a pile of clothes in the bedroom.
Holzwarth and his wife separated for a time in 2013. She wrote in court papers that she was worried about her son’s safety because Holzwarth didn’t secure his guns.
“Jon says it is better to be judged by twelve than to be carried by six,” the woman wrote in the protection order.
Holzwarth must surrender by Aug. 17 to begin serving his sentence.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com
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