Kidnapper faces trial on Aug. 24 in hit-man case

A Grant County, Wash., kidnapper at the center of a sweeping U.S. Supreme Court decision in June faces trial Aug. 24 for allegedly trying to hire a hit man.

Howard Ralph Blakely Jr., 68, is accused of trying to recruit a fellow inmate at the Airway Heights Corrections Center to kill his ex-wife, Yolanda Blakely, and another person believed to be one of his daughters.

The daughter, Lorene L. Blakely, helped authorities catch and convict Blakely after he had kidnapped Yolanda Blakely from her Othello, Wash., area home in October 1998.

Blakely forced his estranged wife, at knifepoint, to get into a wooden box that he hauled to Gallatin County, Mont., in the bed of his pickup.

Blakely also forced the couple’s then-13-year-old son, Ralphy, to follow in his mother’s car by threatening to shoot the boy’s mother.

Ralphy escaped at a Moses Lake truck stop, where he asked employees to call police. The boy’s father attempted to drag him away, but other customers intervened and Ralph Blakely drove off.

According to court documents, Blakely called his daughter, Lorene, several times after reaching a friend’s house in Montana.

Blakely reportedly asked his daughter to get custody of Ralphy and bring him to Montana. Instead, Lorene Blakely used telephone caller identification to help police find her father.

After he was caught, Blakely pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree kidnapping involving domestic violence and to the use of a firearm in the crime.

He faced a standard sentence of 49 to 53 months in prison, but Grant County Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline gave him 90 months – or 7 1/2 years. Sperline based the sentence on his finding that the crime involved “deliberate cruelty.”

Spokane defense attorney Doug Phelps appealed the sentence on grounds that defendants have a constitutional right to have a jury decide all facts used to determine their sentences. Tacoma attorney Jeffrey Fisher pressed the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices agreed in a 5-4 decision in June.

The case is expected to affect Washington and up to 16 other states with sentencing-guideline systems. Already in Washington, prosecutors are starting to frame charges in a way that asks juries to decide whether aggravating factors justify longer-than-standard sentences.

One week before the high court ruled Blakely must be resentenced, Grant County Prosecutor John Knodell charged him with one count of solicitation to commit first-degree murder.

Court documents say the charge is based on a sting investigation that sheriff’s detective David Matney conducted after receiving information from a former Airway Heights Corrections Center inmate. The informer, Robbie T. Juarez, said Blakely had offered him $40,000 to kill Blakely’s ex-wife and another person whose name Blakely didn’t give.

Juarez had 11 felony convictions and was facing a charge of residential burglary when he agreed to help catch Blakely in exchange for consideration in his own case.

Matney rented a post office box, which Juarez used as a return address in a letter he wrote Blakely last October. The detective reported in court documents that a letter signed “Your friend, Ralph B.” arrived Nov. 3 in an envelope bearing another prison inmate’s name.

The letter gave Juarez the address of a “Lorene B.” in Union Gap, Wash., believed to be Blakely’s daughter Lorene L. Blakely. The writer promised to send “the other address (main) in next letter,” Matney reported.

The detective said the letter went on to say, “I have funds for you. Keep in touch.”

Matney says he believes money was a factor in the 1998 kidnapping, in which Blakely’s motive widely was reported to have been a desire to keep his wife from divorcing him.

Court records show Yolanda Blakely told FBI agents her husband wanted her to drop litigation over assets as well as a pending divorce, Matney reported. He said Yolanda Blakely told the FBI that the assets included $1.2 million from the sale of property, $460,000 in a stocks-and-bonds account and some real estate.

Juarez said Ralph Blakely wanted revenge and claimed his wife and the other person he wanted killed were trying to steal his money, Matney stated.