A former Everett man was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for a 2000 shooting death at an apartment complex.
Mark Wade Knight, 28, got the same term he did in 2001, when he was first tried for the shooting death of Bruce Macaulay.
He received a second trial in July after the state Court of Appeals rejected his first conviction because Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Larry McKeeman didn’t allow a jury instruction that would have allowed a criminal trespass conviction instead of a murder conviction.
This time, the judge allowed a criminal trespass alternative, but the jury rejected it.
McKeeman said nothing has changed since he last sentenced Knight, so he gave him the same penalty.
“There was no indication Mr. Knight intended Mr. Macaulay to die that night,” McKeeman said, giving the defendant several years less than the law allows.
Knight was one of a group of young men who had gone to the Macaulay apartment to teach him a lesson, deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson argued. The men had a grudge against the victim because Macaulay had accused Knight of stealing from him.
Knight was boosted to a second-floor balcony carrying an aluminum baseball bat, but the invaders were so drunk that they woke up Macaulay.
Macaulay disarmed Knight and struck him on the head with the bat. Ty Anthony Wilshusen, Knight’s companion, saw his friend in trouble and shot Macaulay in the heart.
Knight was convicted on the basis that he was participating in a burglary at the time Macaulay died.
Wilshusen also got a length prison term. Their two companions pleaded guilty to burglary, testified against Wilshusen and Knight, and received jail time.
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