A Jefferson County man who was in a bad mood April 24 was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday for shooting at two vehicles.
Instead of two counts of drive-by shooting, a deputy prosecutor told a judge it could easily have been a sentence for murder. That’s how close bullets came to the occupants of two pickups, deputy prosecutor John Adcock told Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Ellen Fair.
The shooter, Richard Roy Gamble, 61, of Brinnon, pleaded guilty in July. He also will have to pay an undetermined amount of restitution to the victims after he is released from prison.
“That we’re not here for sentencing on second-degree murder is a miracle,” Adcock told the judge. “There’s no excuse for this kind of behavior.”
Adcock asked the judge to “send a message to this defendant that if you do this kind of thing you’re going to jail for a long time.”
Gamble and his lawyer, public defender Martin Mooney, agreed to accept the high end of the sentencing range, which Fair imposed. When Gamble is released from prison, he’ll remain under state supervision for up to three years.
“In terms of the appalling nature of this offense, Mr. Gamble, you clearly endangered everyone on the road that day,” Fair told him.
She sternly warned him that he must never be around firearms again. She told him he’s “extremely fortunate nobody was physically injured.”
Gamble had just come from visiting his mother, and he was angry, court documents say. Mooney said the fact that his trailer had been sold “set him off.” Gamble told Washington State Patrol troopers that other drivers were tailgating him, and he wanted to teach them a lesson.
The first shooting happened on Highway 526 in Everett heading toward I-5. Gamble told officers he didn’t like the driving of the man behind the wheel of a Toyota pickup and fired a shot that hit the side of the vehicle just behind the driver’s seat.
A few minutes later, the second victim encountered Gamble entering I-5. She told troopers that Gamble nearly ran another vehicle off the road while getting on the freeway. He was driving slowly in a 60-mph zone, documents say.
She passed him and saw the driver pointing a pistol in her direction. She heard a noise, but didn’t realize that a bullet had penetrated the tailgate until she stopped her truck.
Troopers arrested Gamble in the Lynnwood area. Two loaded pistols were on the seat of his car, Adcock said.
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