Prosecution Offers Deal To Mother In Mercy Killing But Attorney Says Pleading Guilty To Manslaughter Still Too Harsh

Plead guilty to manslaughter or go to trial for murder.

That’s the choice Spokane County prosecutors are giving Deborah Rockstrom, who drugged and smothered her daughter after she was disabled in an accidental shooting.

Under the proposed plea bargain, Rockstrom would face between 2-1/2 and 3-1/2 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter.

Authorities say the offer is consistent with verdicts reached by juries in other “mercy killing” cases around the country.

“We have to look at a case and try to anticipate what a jury will decide,” said Prosecutor Jim Sweetser.

But Rockstrom’s attorney, Dick Cease, isn’t happy with the deal on the table.

He said his homemaker-client acted out of compassion and doesn’t belong in a prison cell.

“I’m disappointed that the state can’t make a more realistic evaluation,” he said.

“I’m hopeful that once they have the benefit of all the information, it can be handled in a more appropriate manner.”

Cease said he won’t formally respond to the offer until he reviews police reports and talks to the family.

Rockstrom declined to comment Wednesday on Cease’s advice.

Under the proposed plea agreement, prosecutors would be silent at sentencing, allowing the defense to seek leniency.

If Rockstrom, 37, rejects the proposal, prosecutors intend to file a second-degree murder charge, exposing the Spokane mother to much stiffer punishment: 10 to 13 years in prison.

Her mental state is the key to the case.

A pair of experts who evaluated her for the defense have concluded she was incapable of forming criminal intent at the time of the killing due to severe stress.

Prosecutors are taking their time in deciding how to proceed with the gut-wrenching case.

More than half a year after the killing, Rockstrom still has not been charged with a crime.

In police interviews, she admitted smothering her paralyzed 14-year-old daughter in their West Euclid home on Feb. 21.

Erin Rockstrom was accidentally shot in the face Sept. 5, 1993, while partying with other teenagers at the home of a friend whose parents were out of town.

One boy was playing with a .22-caliber handgun when it went off. The bullet pierced Erin’s right cheek, traveled through her brain and lodged in her brain stem.

After the shooting, she was unable to walk, talk or hold up her head.

Deborah Rockstrom became convinced her daughter wanted to die, and spoke about fulfilling that wish shortly before last Christmas, according to police.

But her husband, Steve Rockstrom, refused to go along. He told her not to raise the subject again, according to court documents.

Authorities reviewed Erin Rockstrom’s therapy records in an attempt to determine whether she really did express a desire to die.

While mercy-killing cases are uncommon, this is Cease’s second as a defense lawyer.

In 1988, he represented retired Spokane attorney Wallace Jones, who shot and killed his disabled wife.

Jones was charged with second-degree murder, but sympathetic jurors were convinced he loved his wife. They convicted him of second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

In a recent North Idaho case, Curt Doty was charged with second-degree murder for shooting his comatose brother in the head.

Doty pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced in May to three years in prison. But the judge showed compassion, allowing him to be paroled in 30 days.

, DataTimes