A Vancouver man convicted of stabbing a man during a bank robbery last year was sentenced Friday to spend more than 18 years in prison.
Timar Degraffe, 25, walked into an iQ Credit Union in the VanMall neighborhood in May 2015 carrying a large knife. He flashed the knife at a teller and demanded money.
He left carrying more than $2,000 in cash, but as he left, a customer, William Uptmor, attempted to intervene.
Degraffe stabbed Uptmor in the abdomen. The knife went through Uptmor’s stomach and into his back muscles, Deputy Prosecutor Mike Vaughn said. Uptmor was in a coma for more than two weeks and had two heart attacks while in the hospital, Vaughn said. He now has a pacemaker.
Degraffe ran, then was caught following a daylong search.
Last month, a jury found Degraffe guilty of second-degree assault and first-degree robbery.
Because Degraffe had been released from prison less than two weeks before the robbery, the court had the option to impose a sentence beyond the standard range allowed in the law.
Vaughn argued for Degraffe’s assault and robbery sentences to run consecutively, which would have meant a 20-year prison term.
“The circumstances in this case are more than compelling, they’re shocking,” Vaughn said.
Jack Peterson, Degraffe’s attorney, argued that while Degraffe’s offenses were as serious as described, a 20-year sentence would be on par with a first-degree assault conviction, which the jury declined to level.
The jury deliberated for six hours. Degraffe was originally charged with attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault along with first-degree robbery, but jurors had the option to convict on the lesser charges.
They chose the latter, and to give a 20-year sentence would run contrary to that verdict and the Legislature’s intent in writing the law, Peterson said.
In asking for a lesser sentence, Degraffe told Superior Court Judge David Gregerson he didn’t want to downplay what he had done.
“It was very serious. I walked into that bank intending to rob the bank,” he said. “I know I did what I did, and I know what I did was wrong.”
Stabbing Uptmor was a “horrible decision,” Degraffe said, but he never intended to harm anyone.
Gregerson said he was being charitable when he called Degraffe’s choice to stab Uptmor a “bad decision,” but he added that walking into a bank with a big knife was an “open invitation” to violence.
Gregerson decided the robbery and assault sentences would run consecutively, but for less time: 220 months, total.
Degraffe will get 507 days credit for time already served.
