A man once sentenced to more than 26 years in prison in the shotgun slaying of an Everett woman had his term reduced to 10 years Monday.
Paris Perrantes, 38, is the latest defendant to benefit from a controversial 2002 state Supreme Court ruling that invalidated dozens of second-degree murder convictions statewide.
He could be out in six months with credit for good behavior.
“I can hope and trust you will live a law-abiding life upon your release,” Judge James Allendoerfer told Perrantes while resentencing him in Snohomish County Superior Court.
Perrantes was the eighth convicted killer in the county to have a murder charge reduced to manslaughter under the Supreme Court ruling, said Seth Fine, a deputy prosecutor.
Three years ago, the state’s high court ruled it was illegal for prosecutors to convict someone of second-degree murder by arguing that the person was engaged in second-degree assault that ended in death.
The ruling came in the case of a King County man convicted of murder after a street fight ended in a stabbing death. It threw out longstanding legal precedent on what is known as the felony murder law, which allowed prosecutors to convict people of murder without having to prove intent.
Perrantes was found guilty in 1997 of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Lorraine Mary Wood, 47. A jury found that Perrantes threatened three women with a shotgun during an argument. The gun discharged accidentally, killing Wood.
The sentence of 26 years and five months in 1998 was the minimum punishment Perrantes faced for murder under state sentencing guidelines. At the time, his defense attorney argued for 10 years in prison, which was what he would have received for first-degree manslaughter.
Court records show that jurors believed that what Perrantes did could be considered manslaughter. They convicted him of that charge, in addition to second-degree murder, because prosecutors included it as a second count.
The state Court of Appeals later said that was a mistake because Perrantes shouldn’t have faced double punishment for a single crime. They tossed out the manslaughter conviction but let the murder conviction stand.
Allendoerfer reinstated the first-degree manslaughter conviction despite defense arguments that it already had been thrown out.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
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