Court Upholds Exceptional Sentence

Tue., April 21, 1998

From Staff

The Washington Court of Appeals has upheld an exceptional 25-year prison sentence imposed on a Spokane drunken driver involved in two fatal accidents.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor sentenced Bradford J. Erickson, 39, in 1996 after he pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide.

The term exceeded the high end of the standard sentencing range by 10 years. It was the longest sentence in state history for vehicular homicide.

O’Connor refused to accept a 15-year sentence recommended by Erickson’s lawyer and prosecutors, citing the defendant’s long history of substance abuse and driving under the influence.

Erickson asked the Court of Appeals to set aside the exceptional sentence on the grounds that the plea agreement had been breached.

In its decision this week, the appeals court sided with O’Connor, finding: “Erickson made his plea voluntarily, competently and with knowledge of the consequences.”

Erickson was intoxicated on Sept. 20, 1995, when he crashed his mother’s Chrysler into the back of a concrete truck on Trent Boulevard. Killed instantly were passengers Edith Hansen, 20, and Barbara Perry, 31.

In 1983, Erickson was sent to prison for causing the death of three people. He smashed his car head-on into another vehicle on U.S. Highway 395 north of Spokane.

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