A Brush Prairie man originally given 40 years in the 2011 slaying of his father had nearly nine years shaved off his sentence Wednesday as a result of winning part of his court appeal.
Troy Fisher, 46, was resentenced in Clark County Superior Court after the Washington Court of Appeals ruled in July there was insufficient basis to find Fisher deserved an exceptionally long sentence.
Fisher was convicted April 30, 2013, of first-degree murder with a firearm enhancement and an aggravating factor — egregious lack of remorse — that allowed the trial judge to sentence him outside the standard range of 240 to 320 months. Now-retired Judge Barbara Johnson found Fisher had acted with an egregious lack of remorse because he concealed his father’s body. The body has never been located.
On appeal, the higher court agreed with Fisher’s argument that he did not act with an egregious lack of remorse and said it’s not uncommon for “a culpable party to conceal evidence of guilt.” The appeals court upheld Fisher’s conviction but ordered he be resentenced within the standard range, with the 60-month firearm enhancement.
Fisher shot his father, Edward “Bud” Fisher, twice on Aug. 7, 2011, at their Brush Prairie home and then stole several thousand dollars from his bank accounts. He had been living with his father following a divorce and a job layoff.
He confessed to the shooting in a Sept. 19, 2011, recorded interview with Clark County sheriff’s detectives. Troy Fisher said he burned his father’s body in a trash pile in the yard. However, a forensic anthropologist testified during trial that there was no sign of a body in the area where Fisher said the cremation took place.
Fisher also told detectives he disposed of bloodied carpet from the home. A detective found the carpet, and tests confirmed the blood belonged to Bud Fisher, according to a forensic scientist.
Objections
During the resentencing, Troy Fisher and his attorney, Ed Dunkerly, objected to Johnson presiding. Dunkerly argued that the statute for a retired judge returning for a case only pertains to pending cases. He said Fisher was already convicted and sentenced, therefore his case wasn’t pending when Johnson retired. They asked her to recuse herself. Fisher called Johnson corrupt and said she is prejudiced against him.
Johnson denied the request and said Fisher’s case has been pending in the state appellate court. She argued that she’s the judge most familiar with the case, and it wouldn’t be in the interest of justice to have another judge play catch up. Most of Fisher’s arguments of prejudice, she said, are issues he had with the trial and outcome.
Fisher then began to argue with the judge and talk over her. He repeatedly brought up other grievances and demanded he be heard on the matters. Johnson told Fisher it was not the time or place, because they had nothing to do with resentencing.
“This has got to be improper,” Fisher pressed.
Johnson moved on with the hearing.
Several of Fisher’s family members attended the resentencing. His half sister, Tina Emerson Hoffman, read a statement and two others on behalf of her father’s sister and youngest daughter.
“Objection!” Fisher yelled, interrupting Hoffman as she began to read the statements. “She’s not even a blood relative to the victim.”
Johnson quieted the commotion and allowed Hoffman to continue.
In one statement, Bud Fisher’s sister wrote that she found it hard to believe someone could commit premeditated murder and not receive a life sentence, let alone get a reduced sentence. His youngest daughter argued that Troy Fisher’s punishment does not fit the crime. She said he received a merciful sentence.
Hoffman, in her statement, pleaded with the court to give her brother the maximum possible sentence. Fisher murdered their father in cold blood, she said, because of his greed and hatred.
No remorse
Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Camara Banfield asked Johnson to sentence Fisher to the maximum, with the firearm enhancement. She argued that Fisher has shown no remorse for his actions.
Dunkerly urged the judge to sentence his client to the middle of the standard range — about 280 months.
“This is a dysfunctional family,” he said. “There is something wrong here.”
Dunkerly argued that the elder Fisher and his son did not have a normal relationship and that there was a lot of friction between them. An argument occurred between the father and son, he said, and it escalated.
“This was not a stranger-on-stranger thrill-killing,” Dunkerly said. “This was not a robbery gone wrong.
“Emotions run high in families,” he added. He asked Johnson to look at the case objectively and not from an emotional standpoint.
When asked if he had anything to say, Fisher merely brought up another past grievance with the case.
Johnson agreed there are clearly intense feelings around the case. Even still, she said Fisher’s actions were deliberate, and he admitted to the crime.
She followed the prosecution’s recommendation and sentenced Fisher to just shy of 32 years in prison.
After the resentencing, another of Fisher’s sisters, Terrie Hasan, said it still strikes her that after nearly five years, her brother still has shown no remorse.
