Court affirms murder sentence

by Keith KINNAIRD<br
| November 11, 2008 8:00 PM

SANDPOINT - The Idaho Court of Appeals is upholding the sentence handed down to a Sandpoint man convicted in the shotgun killing of Christopher Elliott West in 2005.

Christopher Alan Lewers appealed his first-degree murder conviction and its resulting sentence of 20 years to life, arguing a district court judge abused his discretion by imposing an excessive sentence.

Lewers appealed his sentence despite entering into a plea agreement with the state which proposed the 20-to-life penalty. Lewers' defense counsel proposed 12 years of imprisonment when he was sentenced in November 2007.

But Judge Lansing Haynes approved the state's recommendation, finding that the punishment met Idaho's sentencing goals of protecting society, deterring others from committing such offenses and imposing a penalty which would deter vigilantism.

The appeals court affirmed the sentence Haynes imposed, finding that he did not abuse his discretion.

"Accordingly, Lewers's judgment of conviction and sentence are affirmed," the appeals court said in a two-page unpublished opinion issued on Nov. 7.

Lewers, 25, and Kenneth Eugene Thurlow, 48, were implicated in the ambush-style killing of West in August 2005 outside a Sandpoint towing company garage. Both suspects were allegedly armed with shotguns and each blamed the other for the shooting of West, a 25-year-old father.

A Bonner County jury convicted Thurlow of first-degree murder in 2006 and was sentenced to life without parole.

Jurors in Thurlow's trial were not instructed to conclude whether he pulled the trigger or helped carry out the killing. It has never been proven who fired the gunshot which took West's life.

A motive for the killing has also never been firmly established, although Sandpoint Police Chief Mark Lockwood branded it drug related.

Lewers is serving his sentence at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, according to the Idaho Department of Correction. Thurlow is imprisoned at the Idaho Correctional Center, a privately run IDOC facility also located in Kuna.