Man set free after admitting he killed wife

More than two decades after he beat his wife to death, pawned her wedding ring and buried her in the back yard of his South Hill home, Spokane resident Monte Emil Anderson admitted the crime Tuesday. In exchange, he was set free.

A jury convicted Anderson after the home was sold in 1983 and a new owner found Joanne M. “Shelly” Anderson’s skeleton in a suitcase buried in a compost pile.

Shelly Anderson was believed to have been killed about a year earlier, in September 1981, when she visited her estranged husband.

Witnesses said the 24-year-old woman had separated from her husband because of his cocaine use. Anderson claimed drug dealers killed her because he owed them money.

Jurors convicted Anderson of second-degree felony murder, on grounds that she died in the course of an assault. Then, as now, state law said a defendant may be convicted of murder if a victim died in the course of some other felony.

But the Washington Supreme Court ruled in October 2002 that assault wasn’t a qualifying offense for second-degree murder.

The Legislature quickly amended the law and said the Supreme Court was wrong about the original law’s intent, but the court refused to reconsider. Then, last November, the court expanded its ruling to include old convictions, going back to 1975.

As a result, Anderson and some two dozen other Spokane County convicts had their convictions overturned. Prosecutor Steve Tucker ordered his deputies to charge Anderson and the others again.

The result has been a number of plea bargains that restore convictions but reduce prison terms.

In Anderson’s case, Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque sentenced him Tuesday to a maximum-standard 20 years. That was 22 months less than Anderson had already served, leaving him a free man.

A combination of U.S. and state supreme court decisions ruled out the possibility of an above-standard sentence.

Under Washington’s indeterminate sentencing law at the time of Anderson’s first conviction, he was sentenced to life but was eligible for parole after 71/2 years.

Anderson violated his parole and was returned to prison, where he remained until his sentence was overturned this year and he was released pending a new trial.