Once-Banished Robber Sentenced Suspended Sentence A Warning For Moving Without Permission
Convicted robber Adrian Guthrie, one of two teens banished to a remote island in a 1994 experiment in tribal justice, was given a suspended 20-day jail sentence Friday for returning to Alaska without permission.
Guthrie, who participated in the hearing by telephone from Alaska, was ordered by Snohomish County Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer to keep making $100-a-month restitution payments to the state and maintain monthly contact with his community corrections officer as conditions for the suspended sentence.
Guthrie and co-defendant Simon Roberts, members of Alaska’s Tlingit tribe, were 16 when they attacked and robbed Everett pizza-delivery driver Tim Whittlesey in 1993.
Both pleaded guilty and, in September 1994, were turned over by Allendoerfer to a Tlingit tribal court, which banished them to separate campsites on an island off Southeast Alaska to reflect on their crime and work to turn their lives around.
The experiment was halted after about a year due to media scrutiny, unauthorized visits and infighting among members of their Tlingit clan.
Allendoerfer then sentenced Guthrie to 31 months in prison and Roberts, who struck the victim with a baseball bat, to 55 months.
Guthrie, released in 1996, struggled with restitution to the state, which incurred nearly $40,000 in expenses related to treatment for Whittlesey, but he is current since September and so far has paid $600.
Roberts, released in January and living in Lynnwood, between Seattle and Everett, has made one $100 payment.
Both are now 21.
Friday’s hearing was held to address three probation violation charges against Guthrie - nonpayment of restitution, failure to report properly to his community corrections officer and moving back to Alaska without approval.
“He’d been given permission to visit there, but not to change his residence,” deputy prosecutor David Thiele said.
The state had sought a sentence of 80 days suspended on condition of no further violations.
Guthrie had been working at a seafood processing plant and living with a pregnant girlfriend in Ketchikan but had quit to return to his hometown of Klawock and help his mother, who recently lost her job, according to his attorney, public defender Bill Jaquette.
Jaquette said he was pleased with the judge’s willingness to limit oversight of Guthrie to the matter of restitution, “letting Adrian make decisions as far as where to live and what-not.”
Allendoerfer “definitely wants him to report better,” Jaquette added.
Guthrie shouldn’t have been allowed to quit his job in Ketchikan without a guarantee of future employment, but he told the court he would have no trouble finding work at a mill in Klawock, Thiele said.
Guthrie probably will continue to struggle, but Roberts has turned his life around, Espeth told the judge.
xxxx Case history Adrian Guthrie and Simon Roberts, members of Alaska’s Tlingit tribe, were 16 when they attacked and robbed Everett pizza delivery driver Tim Whittlesey in 1993.