EVERETT — A Marysville man has been sentenced to just over four years behind bars for a brutal beating that sent his ex-girlfriend to the hospital with a broken jaw.
On Thursday, Rhyan Vasquez, 27, was escorted into Snohomish County Superior Court wearing a green striped prison uniform and orange shoes. He pleaded guilty this week to second-degree assault.
Defense attorney Stephen Richie and deputy prosecutor Sarah Johnson both asked Judge Marybeth Dingledy to hand down a sentence of four years and two months in prison, followed by 1½ years of probation. The judge approved their request.
“I understand, Mr. Vasquez, that you had a difficult time growing up,” Dingledy said in court, “and that you had very bad role models … but I can’t overlook the facts of the violence of this particular case.”
In July 2019, Vasquez was doing time at Clallam Bay Corrections Center for violating parole. He asked his ex-girlfriend to pick him up from the prison when he was released and to drop him off in Marysville, according to charging papers. She agreed.
Vasquez reportedly became violent on the drive back and threatened the woman’s current boyfriend. Things escalated, and he punched her in the face and threw her cellphone away, she told police. Then he took control of the car and drove to a nearby state park. The woman told police Vasquez forced her into the bathroom and raped her.
The Marysville man was charged in Jefferson Superior Court with first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping and harassment. Those charges were ultimately dismissed without prejudice.
In August 2019, the woman filed for a protection order against Vasquez.
“I’m afraid he will kill me,” she wrote in the protection order. She also wrote she would still be scared for her life 10 years later.
About a month after the order was filed, a Marysville man called 911 to report Vasquez was attacking the woman in the parking lot of her apartment, the charges say.
The woman was badly injured and bleeding. Vasquez hit her in the face with a pistol, she told police. The woman had to undergo oral surgery to treat her broken jaw and had 14 screws placed in her mouth.
Vasquez fled the scene and was arrested two days later at a different Marysville apartment. He has remained in custody since then.
The woman filed a victim impact statement with the court and declined to speak Thursday in court.
Vasquez has spent much of his life in the criminal justice system. His felony track record includes past convictions for first-degree robbery, second-degree escape and attempting to elude pursuing police.
In a sentencing memorandum, Vasquez’s defense attorney pointed to his troubled upbringing, wrought with exposure to violence and people struggling with addiction. Vasquez started abusing drugs as a teen, Richie wrote, and was addicted when he committed the attack in 2019.
Richie told the judge Thursday that Vasquez has kept consistent contact with a social worker while in custody the past three years, and together they have made a comprehensive plan for Vasquez to reintegrate into society upon his release.
“Mr. Vasquez is really grateful for the time he’s spent in custody,” Richie said in court. “It’s basically forced him to get sober and get his head in a different place. He has really struggled — really since his childhood — coming to terms with his addiction, how bad it is and the things that it led him to do. … He’s very ashamed and he’s very remorseful for everything that has happened in connection to this case.”
Ellen Dennis: 425-339-3486; edennis@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterellen.
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