Teen Gets 15 Years In Prison For Assault, Robbery 16-Year-Old Helped Beat Elderly Woman This Summer; 15-Year-Old To Serve Six Years In Juvenile Facility

Wed., Oct. 27, 1999

By Tom Sowa toms@spokesman.com (509) 459-5492

A Spokane teen will spend 15 years in prison for robbing and beating a 63-year-old woman in her home this summer.

Richard J. Brown, 16, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to the first-degree assault of Ida Herleder in her Spokane Valley home the night of June 3.

Prosecutors say Brown and a companion broke into her home through a basement window. When Herleder heard them, Brown and Matthew Masingale, 14, came upstairs, hit her with a cane and an ice ax, then sprayed her face with a fire extinguisher, according to court documents.

Brown later told police he took the woman’s wallet containing $5.18 and credit cards. He also took a Pepsi.

He and Masingale, now 15, also took the keys to Herleder’s Oldsmobile and drove away after the burglary.

Police arrested the pair in Kootenai County, driving the car hours after the break-in and beating.

Masingale told authorities he struck the woman first with the cane and then with the ax, which he also found in Herleder’s basement.

Brown said he also grabbed the ax and hit Herleder in the head with its broad end.

Brown has an extensive juvenile criminal record. He was convicted of first-degree child rape in Ferry County in 1996 and 1997. He was also convicted there of second-degree burglary in 1996.

Because he was 16 at the time of the crime, Brown was charged as an adult and will serve his sentence in a state prison, Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz said.

Masingale went through a hearing in juvenile court and was not charged as an adult. After pleading guilty to first-degree assault, Masingale will serve six years in a juvenile facility.

“This is a pretty severe case with some really unpleasant facts,” Steinmetz said. “It makes you wonder how people can mistreat another human being the way they did.”

Before the teens left Herleder’s home, they also spray-painted a swastika on her carpet, Steinmetz said.

Police could not establish ties between the teens and racist groups, he said.

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