Woman gets 21 months in slaying

A Moses Lake woman was sentenced Friday to 21 months in prison for shooting a Ferry County man to death last August.

Doris M. Grisham, 47, had been charged with second-degree murder in the death of 24-year-old Benjamin S. Brown, but in January she pleaded no contest to second-degree manslaughter.

As she had all along, Grisham asserted at her sentencing that she shot Brown in self-defense. Her Spokane attorney, Mark Vovos, sought a below-standard sentence on grounds that the homicide in Curlew, Wash., was “imperfect self-defense.”

The shooting occurred when a group of people, who had been drinking at the Curlew Saloon until it closed at 2 a.m., returned to the Old School Apartments, where some of them lived. The apartments are owned by Ferry County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Baker and her husband, Joe Abraham.

Grisham was staying with a boyfriend who lived across the hall from Brown, who had recently moved to Curlew from Moundhouse, Nev. When she was arrested, Grisham told sheriff’s deputies that the men quarreled and Brown attacked her and her boyfriend.

“He came into the apartment and started hitting me and then threw me up against the wall and went after my boyfriend and started beating him,” Grisham told officers. ” … I grabbed my gun and shot him twice.”

Investigators reported that Brown was killed in the hallway, not in the apartment, and his hands showed no sign that he had been in a fight.

Officers said all the witnesses were highly intoxicated. One was so drunk he fell asleep on top of Grisham’s loaded and cocked pistol when she fled and asked him to hide it, investigators stated.

Grisham went to her father’s nearby home, where she was arrested. She said she was afraid of “vigilantes” at the shooting scene.

Assistant Attorney General Melanie Tratnik argued that even if Grisham thought she was defending herself or others, she was negligent and used excessive force. Tratnik pointed out that Brown was unarmed and was shot twice in the chest with a 9 mm pistol.

Grisham faced a standard sentencing range of 21 to 27 months. Tratnik called for 24 months, but Ferry County Superior Court Judge Al Nielson imposed 21.

Nielson allowed her to remain free until April 6, when she is to report to the county jail for transportation to prison.