The Snohomish mother now never goes to bed until she has checked the locks on all the doors and windows.
The father wakes up when the dog barks and can’t get back to sleep until he has found out what disturbed it.
The 17-year-old son never goes into the garage, and the two young daughters don’t go anywhere without their parents’ knowledge.
The family members, who were the victims of a terrifying home-invasion robbery in April, have had to adjust ever since a knife-wielding stranger forced his way into their home looking for items he could steal to buy drugs.
The family was forced into a bathroom, threatened and came close to being harmed, a Snohomish County Superior Court judge said in court Tuesday during the sentencing of Paul H. Granquist, 37, of Lake Stevens. He was caught after the father was able to secretly call 911 on a cellphone.
Judge James Allendoerfer sentenced Granquist to about 121/2 years in prison for the robbery, kidnapping, assault and burglary. That was the recommendation of deputy prosecutor Erica Temple.
It came over the objection of public defender Anna Goykhman, who said Granquist was an upstanding citizen with a job and a family before a doctor prescribed an addictive pain medication. Granquist, who had previously had a drug problem, relapsed.
Goykhman asked Allendoerfer for a special sentence, essentially giving Granquist six years behind bars and making him undergo intensive therapy and supervision for another six years. If he failed, the judge could impose the second six years of prison time, she argued.
She also argued that the long prison term was disproportionate to other sentences for similar crimes.
Granquist told the judge that he let his addiction take control of him and didn’t recognize himself.
“I have two little boys, and I still can’t believe what I did,” he told the judge. “I don’t know who that person was that day.”
But the threats and the invasion were “more than a drug addiction,” Allendoerfer commented. “That’s a violent crime our community fears to a significant degree.”
The judge noted that Granquist was in treatment for two years when he lived in Boston, and treatment again in summer 2003. Those attempts failed, and Allendoerfer found little reason to believe another chance would work.
Allendoerfer also found fault with the doctor who prescribed pain medication to a person with addictive tendencies. Nevertheless, it was Granquist who took the drug, didn’t stop and later resorted to street crimes to get more, the judge said.
“At age 37, you are responsible for yourself, Mr. Granquist,” Allendoerfer said.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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