Woman gets 10 years for shooting
A woman who shot a man three times after he accidentally hit her with a half-pint bottle has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
Leona Sutton, 34, is a methamphetamine addict who federal prosecutors say is very dangerous.
"Defendant's livelihood has been a criminal one. Daily use of methamphetamine and distributing it to feed the habit," according to a sentencing memorandum prepared by the U.S. Attorney's Office. "The public is not safe when she consumes alcohol or methamphetamine. It also is not safe when she has access to a firearm."
Sutton shot the man, with whom she frequently used meth, on Oct. 2 with a .22 caliber rifle in Keller, Wash., on the Colville Indian Reservation.
Family told the FBI she had a history of violence and frequently tried to coerce her ex-boyfriend into assaulting people" and "routinely told him that she wanted "to kick someone's ass," prosecutors wrote.
U.S. District Judge Frem Nielsen on Thursday sentenced Sutton to 120 months and 1 day in prison for discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and assault with a dangerous weapon, followed by three years of probation. She also is to pay $5,796.24 restitution. Nielsen recommended she undergo treatment for drug addiction while in prison.
Mike Ormsby, U.S. Attorney in Eastern Washington, praised the sentence in a prepared statement.
"Crimes of violence will not be tolerated in the Eastern District of Washington, particularly those crimes occurring on Tribal lands," Ormsby said. "The Sutton case is yet another example of the United States Attorney's Office’s commitment to prosecute vigorously violent crimes.”