Court affirms sentences in PR slayings

SANDPOINT — First District Judge Benjamin Simpson declined on Tuesday to ease the life sentences he imposed against a Bonner County man who pleaded guilty to stabbing his wife to death and killing their unborn child.

Jeremy Keith Swanson was originally charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Dec. 18, 2012, killings at the couple’s former home in Priest River. The attack killed Jennifer Bosch-Swanson and their unborn daughter, who was 15-18 weeks in utero.

In a plea agreement with the state, the fetal first-degree murder charge was reduced to murder in the second degree. The state also agreed not to seek the death penalty against Swanson in exchange for the pleas.

Simpson sentenced Swanson in September to concurrent terms of life in prison without possibility of parole.

Swanson’s defense counsel subsequently petitioned the court for leniency, arguing that his ability to be rehabilitated had not been ruled out. Swanson asked for life sentences that would qualify him for probation after serving 20 years in prison.

Swanson, 28, was diagnosed with a major depressive disorder with psychotic features and generalized anxiety. He was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which resulted from the slayings, according to Dr. Carl Haugen, a Sandpoint psychologist who examined the defendant.

But Swanson was unable to explain to two doctors why he purchased an ice pick on the day of the killings, researched methods of torture and killing on the Internet and stabbed his wife more than 30 times as she lay in bed.

“Mister Swanson had stated he had no idea why he did what he did,” Haugen testified on Tuesday.

Swanson described being in a dissociative state, as if he was outside of his body and observing the murders, Haugen said.

Swanson’s inability to explain what drove him to kill and his reluctance to seek help for emotional struggles factored into a determination that he posed a high risk to the general public.

However, with pastoral counseling and psychotherapy, Haugen testified that Swanson could potentially be rehabilitated.

“He does have a potential for rehabilitation, which the court didn’t see in the sentencing hearing,” Whitney argued.

Prosecutor Louis Marshall opposed any reduction in sentence, arguing that rehabilitation is always a factor to be considered, but the “gruesome” and “heinous” nature of the killings made life without parole the only appropriate sentence.

“The state’s position is that leniency was already given in this case, and it was given when the death penalty was taken off the table,” Marshall added.

Swanson declined to address the court, making it the second time he’s waived allocution since entering his guilty pleas.

Simpson acknowledged that rehabilitation is to be considered if it’s a realistic proposition, but noted that in Swanson’s case it’s merely a possibility rather than a certainty.

“Anything less than two fixed sentences — concurrent — wouldn’t reflect the seriousness of this crime,” Simpson said. “There’s a high risk that hasn’t been reduced by the testimony today.”

Swanson has 42 days to appeal Simpson’s ruling.