Vancouver man resentenced in 2004 stabbing

A Vancouver man was resentenced Friday to more than 36 years in prison for a 2004 stabbing, after his hearing was continued from last month due to a math error.

Instead of almost mistakenly shaving off 12 years from Jason S. Ferguson’s 40-year sentence, the judge reduced it by less than four years. A court clerk had caught the error at the end of last month’s hearing before the sentencing document was filed.

Ferguson 44, was convicted of second-degree murder in the February 2004 stabbing death of Lavell Lindsey outside a Hazel Dell nightclub and first-degree assault for wounding Lindsey’s friend, Greg Dalton.

A state Supreme Court decision in February 2021 to decriminalize simple drug possession triggered Ferguson’s resentencing. With the State v. Blake ruling, Ferguson’s two prior drug convictions were vacated and no longer counted toward his criminal history in the murder case.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Dan Gasperino asked Clark County Superior Court Judge David Gregerson last month to resentence Ferguson to the high end of his new sentencing range, in accordance with his original sentence. However, an error in adding together the consecutive sentences for each conviction meant Gasperino mistakenly requested a sentence of 28 years, or 100 months less than the high end of the range.

Gregerson said Friday he intended to resentence Ferguson to the top of the ranges at the last hearing and ordered the new, correct sentence of 36 years and four months.

Ferguson has already served 19 years in prison.