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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sirens & Gavels

Man gets 27 years for ‘06 murder

A Nespelem, Wash., man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for the knife-murder of a woman on the Colville Indian Reservation in 2006.

Ryan Martin Seideman, 24, was sentenced to 327 months for second-degree murder on Thursday. He'll be on probation for five years after his release.

The body of Lillian Jolene Lee, 42, was found in her home on March 20, 2006. Seideman was arrested in January 2009 after his DNA was identified in a blood stain on Lee's underwear, who was stabbed at least 30 times, according to court documents.

Lee had allowed Seideman into her home and treated him like a son, prosecutors said in court documents.

"It remains difficult to imagine the amount of pain, fear and torture that Ms. Lee experienced up to her last breath and yet the Defendant showed her no mercy, no compassion and no humanity," according to a sentencing memorandum. "He simply left her there to bleed to death for the community to find her fully exposed, debased and degraded."

A jury convicted Seideman in December. He remains in the Spokane County Jail awaiting transport to federal prison.

 “I hope the victim’s family finds some solace in the resolution of this case," said Michael Ormsby, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, said in a statement.



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