Spokane man sentenced to life in prison without parole for brutal murder of Deer Park ‘girl dad’ Richard Purdy
The family of a Deer Park murder victim rallied together Wednesday to see his killer sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Seventeen members of Richard Purdy’s family stared daggers at Gary Ault, 38, who showed no remorse and claimed innocence at his sentencing.
“You made a choice in your life, and those have consequences,” Spokane County Superior Court Judge Rachelle Anderson told Ault. “I’m sorry you don’t have it within your heart to recognize what you’ve done.”
Purdy, 83, was found dead by his longtime girlfriend on Dec. 26, 2022, in his home, 29410 N. Dalton Road, after he never made it to her house for dinner.
Ault used electrical cords from Christmas lights to break into Purdy’s home and stab him more than 28 times. He sustained blunt-force trauma to his head and also suffered a brain hemorrhage, the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled.
The home was ransacked, court documents said. Multiple firearms were taken from a gun safe.
Detectives later found a knife sticking out of the snow that had blood on it. The blood matched Ault’s DNA, prosecutors said during trial. The state lab found DNA under Purdy’s fingernails was also a match to Ault.
Ault has multiple felony convictions, court records show, mostly including property theft. At the time of Purdy’s murder, he was in community custody.
Purdy’s daughter, Renee Purdy, spoke directly to Ault Wednesday during her victim impact statement.
“I wish you would disappear… You are an evil man. You should’ve been put away from the community years ago… I wish you a very long and miserable life,” she said. “You should’ve been euthanized like an animal.”
Richard Purdy was a “girl dad” from Idaho who worked for Boeing and Kaiser. He was still active into his later years, his daughter said after the sentencing. He’d ride his Harley motorcycle to the gym three days a week and was always up for an activity.
He also loved swimming, skiing, chicken enchiladas and the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
“My favorite memory of my dad was the fact that when we moved to Deer Park, he worked nights. I got to spend the whole morning with him all by myself, watching soap operas,” Renee Purdy said.
She moved into the home where her father died because it was her childhood home, and there are more positive memories there than negative ones, she said. Since, she has built fences around the 10-acre property to keep people out.
Renne Purdy told Anderson she still has panic attacks and lost her job due to the trauma of her father’s murder. She was a woman of faith in God until he died, too, she said.
“How could God let Mr. Ault do what he did?” Renee Purdy said.
Other family members said Ault is evil with no value for human life because he “has a pattern of attacking innocent people.”
Ault faces several assault charges for unrelated Spokane incidents days prior to Richard Purdy’s murder. He is accused of walking up to two women, spraying them with bear spray and then kicking them in the head before walking off Dec. 17, 2022, in downtown Spokane, according to court documents.
On Dec. 20, police alleged Ault punched and hit a man with a hammer in a north Spokane Target bathroom.
He is scheduled for trial in June for the alleged attacks.
Ault said during sentencing Wednesday that he is “not an evil person” but rather a “God-fearing” person and plans to appeal his conviction.
Under Washington law, the mandatory sentence for a conviction of first-degree aggravated murder is life without parole. Anderson, who presided over the trial that found him guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and firearms charges, said the facts instead pointed to his guilt.
“Whether you believe you did this or not, the facts are that Mr. Purdy is no longer with us… The facts around his death were horrendous,” she said. “…The family has to live with the consequences of your actions for the rest of their lives.
“There isn’t any remorse for the pain you caused this family and this community.”