Spokane man will spend 15 years in prison for strangling girlfriend

A Spokane man who strangled his girlfriend at the Downtowner Motel more than a year ago will spend a little over fifteen years in prison.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Harold Clarke last week sentenced Michael W. Baesman, 38, to 184 months in prison for the January 2015 murder of Shawna Wyatt, 34. Baesman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on April 22.

Restitution will be ordered at a separate hearing, court documents say.

Prior to the murder, Baesman had been convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence assault several times. Wyatt’s mother said he had been abusing Wyatt for a long time, and her daughter had been living in a shelter, trying to get away from him.

In July 2014, Baesman was arrested on a domestic violence assault charge after a witness reported an altercation between him and Wyatt in the Wal-Mart parking lot on East Broadway in Spokane Valley.

According to a police report, Wyatt had fresh scrapes and a cut near her eye and initially told the responding deputy she had fallen down. When the deputy said he didn’t believe her, she said that she and Baesman were “playing around” when things got a little rough.

Baesman later pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and was sentenced to 364 days in jail with 363 days suspended and a year of probation.

The night of the murder, Jan. 14, he told police he got into an argument with Wyatt around 10 p.m., court documents say. He got upset because she was being loud and he did not want management to call the police, so he put his hands around her neck and put his hand over her mouth, he told police.

He then called several family members and friends confessing what he had done while crying. Police picked him up the next morning.