EVERETT — Inmate Joshua D. Monson was double-booked on Monday.
At the time he went before one judge for sentencing on a drug conviction, he was scheduled to appear before a different judge to determine if there was probable cause to hold him for a new assault arrest.
The latest assault allegation is the sixth against Monson, who also is charged with second-degree murder.
Corrections officers say Monson kneed an officer in the face Sunday during a search of his Snohomish County Jail cell and of his body. Such daily searches are “standard procedure for this inmate,” according to court papers. Monson was restrained with handcuffs and leg irons at the time.
Three corrections officers then subdued Monson, resulting in a cut to the defendant’s chin, according to court records.
Prosecutors allege Monson has assaulted three corrections officers and three of his court-appointed attorneys. He is accused of stabbing the lawyers with writing implements and head-butting two corrections officers. In two of the stabbings, he is accused of smuggling pencils from the jail.
On Monday, Monson was sentenced to 22 months in prison on the drug charge. A jury found him guilty in November of possessing methamphetamine. The prison term handed down by Judge David Kurtz is two months shy of the maximum sentence Monson could have received, based on his extensive criminal history.
Monson, 28, was wheeled into the second-floor courtroom, his body strapped to a chair.
He called the judge “Sir” when answering questions, but the defendant who represented himself at trial did not say anything when given a chance to make a statement before his sentence.
Before pronouncing sentence, Kurtz rejected a defense motion for a new trial. Defense attorney Walter Peale argued that Monson’s case could have been hurt because the jury saw him in restraints as a witness during his trial.
Kurtz said the restraints became necessary because of the defendant’s “egregious misconduct” in the courtroom that posed a risk to others, including staff and jurors.
Prosecutors have charged Monson with second-degree murder charge connected to a Jan. 2 shooting in a south Everett apartment. Monson is accused of shooting Brian Jones, 30, in the head without provocation. Jones was talking on a cellphone in a south Everett apartment when he was shot from behind at close range, according to court records.
State doctors have concluded that Monson is competent to stand trial.
His mental state was called into question after he attacked his first attorney. The incident happened in May at the start of his initial trial on the drug charge. He was given a new lawyer. Within days, he allegedly attacked that man during a court hearing. The lawyers were not seriously hurt.
On Monday, he signed court paperwork without incident under the watchful eyes of corrections officers.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
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