Judge: ‘If I could give you more detention I would’

Juvenile sentenced for Newport vandalism

NEWPORT — A 15-year-old boy who pleaded guilty to first-degree malicious mischief damage exceeding $5,000 was sentenced in Pend Oreille County Superior Court for his role in the felony vandalism. The vandalism spree took place July 17 and involved two other charged co-defendants.

Raeshawn Marques Chapman Maser received the maximum sentence allowed under Washington law, 30 days in detention, time he has already served.

Pend Oreille County Superior Court Judge Lech Radzimski passed down the sentence after hearing impact statements from several victims.

Prosecutor Dolly Hunt said Chapman Maser would be held in Idaho following the resolution of the Washington case. She asked for credit for time served at Martin Hall Juvenile Detention Facility in Medical Lake, the maximum sentence. She said he had been at Martin Hall 33 days.

“This has been a difficult case,” Hunt said, because of the limitations in juvenile law. She said she counted 14 victims and had information on damages of $16,000 from four of them. While the crimes were property crimes, the harm to the people whose property was damaged was real. She said the damage was intentional and demonstrated a disregard for the property of others.

Hunt said there were two other co-defendants and she expected one of those cases to be resolved Friday.

Radzimki heard from nine people who had cars and buildings damaged in the vandalism spree.

A 19-year-old college student spoke of saving for a car that was damaged in the vandalism.

“I’ve been saving up for a car since I was 14 years old, and at the end of May this year, I was finally able to buy a car without financial help from my parents,” she told Radzemski. She said she had to use the $1,000 she had been saving for college to pay an insurance deductible and take out a student loan for school. She hoped for some restitution to pay off the loan.

Another victim said her rare collector’s car that was vandalized meant a lot to her. She can’t get the laughter she heard in the recording of the crime out of her mind.

Another victim said that his family didn’t feel safe in town at night following the vandalism of the truck he had taken special care of from the time he purchased it new off the lot. He called the event unprecedented, violent and a random act that will have ripple effects throughout the community.

Another person wrote that a 9-year-old child could have been in her bed the night their window was broken and injured.

Defense attorney Derk Reid said the law and science recognized that Chapman Mazer was young with a developing brain. He doubted the impact statements would have much effect on him now, given the limitations of his youth.

Reid hoped Chapman Mazer would eventually recognize the real impacts his actions had. He said Mazer’s parents were as “sideswiped by this” as everyone else.

Chapman Mazer’s mother told Radzimski that the stories the victims related hurt. She said her son probably doesn’t get the whole gravity of everything. He had a light about him that may have dimmed but she hoped he would grow from this.

She said she did try to seek help when Chapman Mazer walked away from home but was told by law enforcement that there was nothing that could be done unless he committed a crime.

Radzimski asked Chapman Mazer to stand and if there was anything he wanted to tell him. “Not even I’m sorry?” Radzimski asked.

“Oh yeah, I’m sorry,” Chapman Mazer said. “For what?” Radzimski asked. “For what I’ve done,” Chapman Mazer said. Radzimski said he didn’t think the gravity was sinking in for Chapman Mazer.

“For you, this is a joke,” he said. He had heard what Chapman Mazer’s mother had said before, that there had been warnings but it took something like this to happen before something could be done to intervene.

He said he was going to put it in words Chapman Mazer would understand.

“If I could give you more detention, I would,” he said. He said a 30-day sentence might be right for one car but the amount of damage that was done was unforgiveable.

He sentenced him to the maximum 30days and left restitution open for 180 days.