Man gets 10 years in witness tampering

SANDPOINT — A Washington state man was sentenced to serve up to 10 years in prison Monday for allegedly threatening a witness in a Sandpoint Police Department drug investigation last year.

Robert James Sutton Jr. will have to serve at least six years of the sentence before he can be considered for parole. He professed his innocence before District Judge Steve Verby imposed the sentence.

“I am not the criminal the prosecution is making me out to be,” said Sutton, who believes he was wrongfully convicted of witness intimidation earlier this year.

Sutton, a 26-year old from Spokane Valley, was accused of bursting into a drug informant’s apartment on June 17, 2008, and threatening her with a pistol.  He was charged with aggravated assault, witness intimidation and burglary.

A Bonner County jury convicted Sutton of intimidation following a three-day trial in 1st District Court in February. Jurors acquitted him of the assault charge and deadlocked on the burglary charge, which alleged Sutton entered the woman’s downtown apartment in order to commit the aforementioned felonies.

Sutton was prosecuted as a persistent violator because of prior convictions for burglary in Kootenai County and eluding law enforcement in Bonner County. Idaho’s persistent violator statute has a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and carries the prospect of lifelong imprisonment.

Sutton’s mother, Johnetta Hess, took the stand to emphasize that her son has mental health and substance abuse issues which have largely gone untreated.

“He needs help,” said Hess, who urged the court not to imprison her son.

Verby, however, had no choice due to the mandatory minimum sentencing requirement.

Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson said Sutton has undergone multiple mental health evaluations, which diagnosed him with bipolar and schizoaffective disorders marked by paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations.

In light of the mandatory minimum aspect, Robertson lobbied for a minimal additional imprisonment and credit for 384 days Sutton spent behind bars or in state hospitals while the case was pending.

“The state has incredible concern that if he’s allowed to go into prison, he won’t receive mental health treatment,” said Robertson.

Prosecutor Louis Marshall called Sutton’s case “difficult,” but one that needed to be pursued. He pointed to Sutton’s record of misdeeds that displayed increasing level of reckless abandon over the years.

“We’ve come further now,” said Marshall, who called Sutton’s intimidation of the informant “a planned course of conduct” deserving of a 10- to 20-year sentence.

Verby found that Sutton was at risk of re-offending and a lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of the offense and fail to deter others from committing a similar offense.

“I’m forced to deal with a situation where I have an individual with an extensive criminal record,” said Verby.