Pleading guilty to the charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempted murder with enhanced allegations of using a crossbow and causing great bodily injury during a July 3 trial confirmation, Phoenix Triton King was sentenced to serve 18 years and four months in state prison. As King's defense attorney, (Humboldt County Conflict Counsel Greg) Elvine-Kreis said the decision to take the plea deal came after he and King compared their evidence with that gathered by the prosecution and determined that theirs was not sufficient to argue a perfect self-defense case.Crazy. Good choice? To plea out? Or not?
"What happened is we got an offer for a determinate term," Elvine-Kreis said. "We balanced the evidence of what we had in a perfect self-defense case and determined that this was the better route to take. When you're looking at life in prison, you want to be assured of some things. In the end, we decided to take the offer for an out date when (King's) still somewhat young."
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Tuesday, July 08, 2014
Plea deal in the crossbow case.
◼ King sentenced to over 18 years in state prison for crossbow killing - Will Houston/TS
I am no huge fan of Gallegos and his office, but this is not a bad outcome. Attempted murder is a violent felony, so I presume he's gonna do 85% of 18 years. First degree murder is 25 to life, second degree is 15 to life, so if he had been convicted of second degree (which is possible) he may actually have done less time. It's a good deal for him because he gets a detereminate term. Is it perfect? No. Is it a gross miscarraige of justice? Probably not.
ReplyDeleteRe Murder 2nd... Must serve full 15 years before ever being illegible for parole
ReplyDeleteI'd have pled to 5 yrs, or demanded an immediate trial right now....no way Gallegos can get anyone into the courtroom to try it, much less get prepped and ready to go.
ReplyDeleteI'd never hire that defense attorney, that's for sure.