Dylan Scott Jennings, 37, of Bellevue, Washington, just did (read story here).
Jennings, enraged by his estranged wife seeing another man, walked into the bar where she worked and shot her dead on July 5, 2021. There were aggravating factors: He showed no remorse, and used a stolen gun.
Washington has a firearms enhancement law that allows judges to tack on 5 extra years for using a gun in a crime, which seems to have no deterrent effect on use of guns to commit crimes.
That could be because it’s rarely enforced. Prosecutors often use it as a bargaining chip in plea negotiations. Our society in general has a lax attitude toward guns, and that also may be reflected in its infrequent enforcement.
Jennings, though, wasn’t so lucky, even though he pleaded guilty to first-degree domestic violence murder. The story says “320 months (26.6 years) is the maximum of the standard sentence range for first-degree murder,” which seems odd to me; I thought in Washington you get life for first-degree murder.
In any case, the judge gave him “an additional 60 months (five years) for a firearm enhancement,” which also seems unusual given this is a plea-bargained case. The gun sentence runs consecutively, so he got 380 months or 31.6 years behind bars. If he serves it in entirety, he’ll be 68 when he gets out, but he’ll probably be paroled sooner than that.
Which makes human life seems rather cheap for the taking.
Related story: A 17-year-old who murdered a 64-year-old neighbor for complaining about a loud party has just pleaded guilty to first-degree murder (read story here); how much time will he get, which is another way of saying what is the victim’s life worth?