3 Strikes Felon Says He Will Be Free Again Convicted Of ‘94 Murder Of Tina Langford, Gary Quarles Calls Sentence A ‘Farce’
Gary Quarles won’t “lose any sleep” over spending the rest of his life behind bars, because he’s convinced he’ll be out of prison again someday.
The 31-year-old Spokane man was sentenced Thursday for the 1994 murder of his girlfriend, Tina Langford. Under the state’s “three strikes” law, Quarles was given a life term without possibility of parole.
“I’ll fight until I’m cleared of this farce,” Quarles told Superior Court Judge Thomas Merryman.
Defense attorney Steve Heintz said a 1988 robbery conviction should not be counted as a “strike” against Quarles because he was illiterate when he pleaded guilty to the charge and didn’t understand the consequences of doing so. Quarles also was convicted of robbery in 1992.
Heintz asked the judge for a new trial and challenged the constitutionality of the “three strikes” law.
“(The law) implies that the public has a right to determine whether a person is sentenced to life without parole,” Heintz said. “But that’s why we have a judiciary. If not, lynchings would still be a common thing.”
Deputy prosecutor Dannette Allen, however, said the people of Washington passed the law for a reason: community protection from persistent offenders. Quarles has eight prior convictions, Allen reminded the judge.
“The defendant shall serve life for taking a life,” Allen said. “Through his own conduct, (Quarles) has established himself as a repeat violent offender and now must be held accountable for that.”
Throughout the daylong hearing, Quarles fidgeted in his seat, whispered loudly to his lawyer and let out exaggerated, frustrated sighs. At one point, he flung his hands in the air and pushed his chair angrily away from the table.
Before he was sentenced, Quarles read a prepared statement to the judge complaining about the all-white jury that “railroaded” him.
“There were no peers of mine represented on that jury,” he said. “They’ve proven nothing except that a black man can receive no justice in Spokane.”
Quarles was found guilty last November of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Langford, 29. He denied the charge.
High on crack cocaine and armed with a .22-caliber handgun, Quarles pounded on the door of the Vinegar Flats house where Langford was staying Aug. 13, 1994.
When she refused his 4:30 a.m. demand to step outside, he gunned her down through an open bedroom window. Friends said Quarles had threatened to kill Langford before.
Langford, the mother of four children now in foster homes, tried for years to get off drugs. Relapses forced her into prostitution and other crimes, relatives said.
Quarles’ attorneys promised to appeal.
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