A Snohomish man who was sentenced to more than 45 years in prison for serving as a lookout during a home-invasion robbery in Ridgefield had his sentence reduced Tuesday by 20 years.
Jarrod A. Wiebe, 27, who had no previous criminal history, received the most severe sentence among his three co-conspirators in the robbery, even though the prosecutor and defense attorney agreed he was the least culpable of the group because he was not armed or inside the house when the victim was tied up.
However, the state’s sentencing laws gave Clark County Superior Court Judge Scott Collier almost no discretion in determining Wiebe’s sentence on Oct. 23. The judge called the sentence “a shock to the conscience.”
In an agreement with Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu, Wiebe’s three co-defendants pleaded guilty Sept. 22 to reduced charges. As a result, each was sentenced to between 4½ and 14 years.
Vu offered Wiebe a similar deal, but Wiebe decided to take his case to trial even after being informed of the potential consequences, said his attorney, Chris Ramsay.
A jury found Wiebe guilty Oct. 1 of 16 felonies, nine of which had firearm enhancements. His convictions were largely based on state law that holds accomplices accountable for the crimes of their co-conspirators regardless of their roles in the acts.
Under the Hard Time for Armed Crime Act of 1995, each firearm enhancement added another mandatory five years to a base sentence, all of which must be served consecutively and with no credit for good time. That meant that the judge was forced to sentence Wiebe to a minimum of 41½ years on top of any base sentence.
Wiebe was convicted of first-degree burglary, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, second-degree extortion, first-degree criminal impersonation and 10 counts of firearm theft.
Ramsay on Tuesday asked the judge to vacate Wiebe’s kidnapping convictions and merge them with the robbery convictions because, he argued, the kidnapping was incidental to the robbery crime under state law.
“The kidnapping crimes did not have an independent purpose or effect,” Ramsay wrote.
Vu agreed to make a joint recommendation with Ramsay to merge the convictions, which allowed the judge to shave 20 years off the sentence.
“There could be some argument that this still could be an unjust sentence considering when you look at it in comparison to the co-defendants who got 4½ years, 10 years and 14 years,” Collier said Tuesday. “I do think this further aids in promoting responsibility for the law in seeing that punishment is just.”
Wiebe’s mother, Vicky Wiebe, said Tuesday that her son’s case was part of the impetus for a possible legislative bill to address excessive sentences for defendants with no criminal history. She said state Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, plans to sponsor the bill. Goodman’s office did not return a phone call from The Columbian on Tuesday seeking comment.
On the morning of Dec. 19, 2013, Wiebe and three friends — Larry C. Kyle, Ruben Vega and Regan C. Davis — traveled on Interstate 5 together in a white Isuzu Trooper from the Snohomish area to Ridgefield, Vu said. On the way, they stopped at a Wal-Mart, where Kyle, Vega and Davis changed into military-style clothing, he said.
“We don’t know what exactly was said or agreed to … but in the defendant’s own words, there was talk in the car that someone had been wronged, someone needed a visit and consequences needed to be taken care of,” Vu said.
The men were looking for a man named Francisco but apparently went to the wrong house, the prosecutor said.
Testimony in Wiebe’s five-day trial conflicted over whether Wiebe was with his three friends when they forced their way inside the single-wide mobile home of a 45-year-old worker on a dairy farm in the 23000 block of Northwest Hillhurst Road. However, both the farmworker, Casimiro Arellano, and his longtime partner, Manatalia Barragan, testified that Wiebe served as a lookout while Kyle, Vega and Davis restrained Arellano with disposable plastic flex cuffs and threatened to call immigration if he didn’t surrender his firearms and give them $10,000. Kyle, Vega and Davis were armed with loaded pistols, Vu said.
Arellano and Barragan said that the men kept asking for Francisco, and they kept denying that they knew anyone by that name.
Barragan testified through an interpreter that Wiebe helped the other men steal 10 firearms from the home and pack them in the Trooper.
Wiebe admitted that he knew Vega was carrying a pistol in the waistband of his pants and that Davis was armed with a 1911 Springfield .45-caliber pistol, Vu said. Kyle also was armed with a firearm, which was visible, the prosecutor said.
Ramsay argued that Wiebe wasn’t aware that the victims were being tied up, threatened and robbed.
Kyle, 38, of North Bend pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery and second-degree extortion and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Vu said Kyle was the ringleader.
Vega, 37, also of North Bend pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery and second-degree kidnapping and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Davis, 53, of Everett entered an Alford plea, acknowledging that a jury could find him guilty of first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and theft of a firearm, and was sentenced to 53 months in prison. Ramsay said Wiebe’s plea offer was similar to the one Davis received.
Ramsay said Wiebe has appealed his convictions.
