A Vancouver man who was serving a 35-year prison term for his role in a 2009 fatal home-invasion robbery saw nearly 10 years shaved off his sentence Tuesday.
Clark County Superior Court Judge Nancy Retsinas resentenced Caleb E. Soucy, 41, to 25 years and one month in prison — an exceptional downward departure from his new standard sentencing range of 331 to 421 months.
A state Supreme Court decision in February 2021 to decriminalize simple drug possession triggered Soucy’s resentencing. With the State v. Blake ruling, Soucy’s four prior drug convictions were vacated, so they no longer counted toward his criminal history in the murder case.
Soucy was one of four masked gunmen who broke into a home in the 5300 block of St. James Road on Dec. 13, 2009. Charles N. Moore, 46, who lived in the home with two roommates, was fatally shot after confronting one of the gunmen, Douglas Marquis, The Columbian previously reported.
Soucy, then 28, pleaded guilty in July 2010 to first-degree felony murder. (In a felony murder case, prosecutors need only to prove the defendant committed a felony — robbery, in this case — and in the course of that felony a murder was committed.)
On Tuesday, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu asked the court to sentence Soucy to the low end of his new sentencing range, or 27½ years.
Soucy’s defense attorney, Renee Alsept, argued for a sentence of 23 years and four months, in part because of his “extraordinary rehabilitative efforts” during his time in prison, court records show. Alsept listed in a memo to the court rehabilitation and job training programs Soucy has completed during his incarceration.
In a written statement to the court, Soucy apologized to Moore’s family and said the programs he’s completed have helped him recognize the impacts of his crimes.
Soucy had received the second-highest sentence, behind Marquis, of the six people charged in connection with the plot. Prosecutors previously called him the instigator of the robbery and said he provided the shotgun Marquis used to shoot Moore, The Columbian reported.
