A 23-year-old Vancouver man who is linked with a local murder suspect was sentenced Friday to more than three years in prison for burglarizing a Battle Ground home Sept. 24 and trafficking a stolen revolver.
Samuel A. Scory pleaded guilty March 8 in exchange for prosecutors’ agreeing to drop other burglary charges and recommending a lower sentence.
Clark County Superior Court Judge Daniel Stahnke sentenced Scory to 42 months in prison, substance abuse treatment and 18 months of probation.
Stahnke said he was troubled by the leniency of the plea bargain, given that one of Scory’s accomplices in another burglary, Jacob Mattila, 19, was sentenced Feb. 19 to 10 years in prison.
Scory’s attorney, George Marlton, said that was a trade-off for “economy of justice.” With the plea bargain, the county avoids spending time and monetary resources on a trial.
Scory and Kirk M. Hernandez Sr., 42, who is accused of murdering Matthew Clark on Oct. 1, were accused of being accomplices in the Battle Ground burglary. Guns stolen in the burglary were allegedly the cause of a dispute that prompted Clark’s murder, according to court documents.
The burglars stole numerous firearms, night vision goggles, a deputy sheriff’s badge and other items from the home, the documents state.
Scory was also accused of burglaries Sept. 19 in Vancouver and Oct. 16 in Camas. The Camas burglary made national news because a quick-thinking 10-year-old girl, Paityn Mock, was inside the home at the time and called 911 while hiding in a kitchen pantry.
Charges against Scory for the Vancouver and Camas burglaries were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea. However, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced for trafficking a Taurus .357 revolver, a model of gun stolen in the Sept. 19 burglary.
Paris Achen: 360-735-4551; http://twitter.com/Col_Courts; paris.achen@columbian.com.
