SEATTLE – Having a handgun and a long rap sheet landed a convicted felon back behind bars.
This time Andrew P. Root, 27, will be locked up in federal prison.
On Friday, the Everett man was sentenced to four years in federal detention for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He faces three years of supervision once he is released.
“You don’t want to wake up and ask, ‘What did I do with my life?’ This is your last chance. What you do with your life is on your back,” Chief U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik said.
A decade ago Root, then 17, was convicted of manslaughter, kidnapping and assault in the death of a Tulalip teenager.
Root and four other teens beat Guy Fritch Jr., 19, and forced him into a pickup truck. Fritch died after he somehow fell out or jumped from the truck while it traveled 70 mph on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.
Root served three years in prison. Since his release he has racked up a number of misdemeanor convictions and arrests, special assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Cornell wrote in court documents.
Cornell, who is also a Snohomish County deputy prosecutor, had requested that Root serve nearly five years in prison. He also asked that Root receive intensive alcohol treatment.
Root’s extensive criminal history along with his dangerous conduct during a traffic stop last year prompted prosecutors to indict Root in federal court.
A Washington State Patrol trooper stopped Root in Everett in May 2006. Root, who was intoxicated, was belligerent and confrontational toward the trooper, court records show. A semi-automatic pistol was found in the car.
A felon who is found in possession of a firearm produced by an out-of-state manufacturer can face federal charges. Those crimes, however, often are prosecuted at the state level.
Root has experienced first-hand the consequences of engaging in criminal activity but has persisted in illegal behavior, Cornell wrote. He also has squandered educational and vocational opportunities afforded to him while incarcerated, the prosecutor added.
“The variety of crimes committed by the defendant over the last 11 years is surpassed only by the severity of some of the defendant’s past crimes,” Cornell wrote.
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
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