Second man convicted in purse-snatching case

A Spokane County jury took only an hour and 20 minutes Wednesday to convict the second of two men who fractured 89-year-old Belle Ensminger’s skull while snatching her purse in February.

Jurors convicted 25-year-old Gilbert A. Hicks of first-degree robbery, drug possession and car theft in a crime that left Ensminger with permanent brain damage.

Ensminger was hospitalized in critical condition when Hicks yanked her purse away, causing her to fall and hit her head on pavement.

Superior Court Judge Robert Austin directed the jurors to return Friday morning to hear more testimony and decide whether there were aggravating factors that would justify a longer-than-standard sentence.

The second phase of the trial, which began Monday, is intended to satisfy a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The high court said in the case of a Grant County, Wash., man that defendants have a right to have a jury determine facts used as a basis for above-standard sentences.

Hicks’ accomplice, 33-year-old Michael G. Baldwin, got 10 years – twice the standard maximum – when he was sentenced last month. But he waived his right to a jury trial.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor convicted Baldwin of first-degree robbery and first-degree theft, as charged, in a bench trial in July.

The purse-snatching occurred Feb. 26 in the alley behind Clay and Belle Ensminger’s home in the 2500 block of South Tekoa. The couple, who have been married 53 years, were getting ready to drive to the Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights.

Belle Ensminger had just helped her 76-year-old husband into the driver’s seat of their car. Clay Ensminger suffers from multiple sclerosis and uses a walker.

They both were in wheelchairs Wednesday when the verdict was announced.

Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz will present testimony from doctors and police officers Friday in an effort to demonstrate aggravating factors, including deliberate cruelty and targeting a particularly vulnerable victim.

Steinmetz argued in Baldwin’s case that Baldwin and Hicks had been driving around in a stolen car, looking for something else to steal, when they spotted Ensminger’s purse. Steinmetz said the 5-foot-2, 125-pound woman was defenseless not only because of her age and size, but because she was legally blind.

Hicks’ attorney, Dick Sanger, objected to Friday’s postverdict testimony on grounds that the Legislature didn’t authorize the procedure. Sanger is director of the county’s Counsel for Defense Office, which handles public-defense cases in which the Public Defender’s Office has a conflict.

Steinmetz argued, and Austin agreed, that case law allows judges to empanel a jury whenever a defendant has a constitutional right to one.

The dispute is playing out in courts all over the state with mixed results. Judges in Spokane County and elsewhere have made conflicting rulings about whether courts can fashion their own solution to the dilemma created by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Previously, state law allowed judges to decide whether aggravating factors justified exceptional sentences. Now, only juries can determine aggravating factors, but the Legislature hasn’t amended state law to pass the duty to juries and spell out procedures.

The Legislature is expected to address the issue in January, but judges must deal with numerous cases before then.