Prosecutors alleged that a Baring resident raped a man, stabbed him in the chest and left him to die on a riverbank March 10 in Snohomish County.
The 24-year-old victim survived, and on Monday he told a judge that the memory of the knifing lingers and “right now I feel like a broken man.”
His statement came at the sentencing for the assailant, Jeramy Lynn Schoenecke. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge David Kurtz imposed the high end of the sentencing range, about 13 years behind bars.
Schoenecke, 29, pleaded guilty to the knifing in April. As part of the plea agreement, deputy prosecutor Mark Roe dropped a second-degree rape charge.
Roe told Kurtz it is obvious that Schoenecke should get as much time as possible because he stabbed the younger man in the chest and left him to die.
According to charging documents, the two met at a bar in Gold Bar and left together. Schoenecke drove his Camaro to a spot near a river , held a knife to the victim’s throat and sexually assaulted him, documents said.
When the victim fought back, he was stabbed, Roe wrote.
Later, Schoenecke told police that the younger man was on the ground mumbling after he was stabbed, and all the defendant said then was, “whatever, dude.”
Schoenecke couldn’t leave the riverbank immediately because his Camaro was stuck in the sand. He called friends to help get him out. Roe said the friends saved the victim’s life by calling 911 for medical aid.
Public defender Donald Wackerman noted that Schoenecke pleaded guilty only to the assault charge, and his client denies there was anything sexual about the encounter. He said the assault is not as horrific as other first-degree assaults.
Wackerman asked for a sentence at or near the low end of the sentencing range, about 10 years.
On Monday, Schoenecke told the judge: “I can’t take anything back that I did. I wish I could.”
Even though the younger man survived, Kurtz said he feels obligated to protect the public for as long as he can, so he sentenced Schoenecke to the high end of the rage.
The defendant’s actions that night were “the moral equivalent of murder,” Kurtz said.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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