Man gets 64 1/4 years for murder attempts
Bryan M. “Squirrel” James got a maximum-standard 64 1/4 years in prison Monday for attempting to murder two strangers last summer while they walked along a north Spokane street.
A jury convicted James, 25, in May of two counts of attempted first-degree murder for shooting Richard Payne and Nicholas Schelin as they walked in the 2600 block of North Crestline early June 27, 2004. The jury also convicted James of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Payne and Schelin told authorities James drove alongside them, pointed a pistol at them and said, “Hey, homies.” Then, the victims said, James fired about a half-dozen rounds, hitting Payne in the thigh and Schelin in the arm and side.
James represented himself at trial, which he later said was a mistake. His assessment of his legal skill was as candid as his defense, in which he told jurors he had no alibi.
“I was incompetent,” James said after his conviction, agreeing to let Assistant Public Defender Stephen Heintz try to undo the damage.
Spokane County Superior Court Judge Robert Austin rejected Heintz’s efforts to overturn the jury verdict on a variety of grounds.
James’ sentence included a mandatory five-year “enhancement” for each of the attempted-murder convictions because the crimes involved a firearm.
The attempted-murder sentences and firearm enhancements all are consecutive. James’ sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm will be served at the same time as the other sentences.
James faces trial in October for the alleged first-degree murder of a man police say was trying to protect a woman from James and his 41-year-old uncle, Robert Tracy “Shorty” Spencer.
As soon as he was sentenced Monday, James went to another courtroom to testify in Spencer’s trial in the Nov. 16 death of 40-year-old James A. Johnston.
Court documents allege that the diminutive Spencer took James along as backup when he broke into Johnston’s apartment to harass a woman who had taken refuge there.
Johnston had intervened in an earlier confrontation in which Spencer assaulted the woman, an independent prostitute, in an attempt to force her to accept him as her pimp, according to court documents.
In the second confrontation, authorities allege, James shot Johnston to death when he again tried to defend the woman.
James testified Monday that he didn’t see who fired the shot, but he and Spencer fled when they heard a “pow.”
Spencer later testified that, if he had known James was going to shoot Johnston, he would have tried to prevent James from doing so.
The case is expected to go to the jury today.