Stabbing victim’s relatives say justice not done
Brandon Kristopher Edmondson was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years in prison for stabbing Spokane resident Jose A. Rivas to death in November 2003.
Superior Court Judge Robert Austin imposed the standard-maximum sentence for Edmondson’s first-degree manslaughter conviction, as called for in a plea bargain that didn’t seem to please anyone.
“Haga justicia en este caso,” Rivas’ sister, Rosa Rivas, urged Austin. “Do justice in this case.”
The 19-year-old Edmondson showed he has no conscience, and he will victimize others when he is released, Rosa Rivas said through a Spanish interpreter.
Afterward, she and the victim’s nephew, Reuben Rivas, both of Houston, Texas, said they didn’t think justice was served.
Deputy Prosecutor Andi Jakkola said she agreed to the plea bargain, which cut Edmondson’s sentencing range in half, “to ensure that there is accountability” despite problems with evidence that could have made a first-degree murder conviction difficult to obtain.
Edmondson didn’t speak, but his brother, Alexis Alexander, suggested racism may have contributed to the life of crime that led up to the homicide. After an unjust conviction at age 12, Alexander said, his brother’s life as a young black man in a white town “was never the same.”
Edmondson’s girlfriend and co-defendant, 19-year-old Stephanie A. LaFontaine, pleaded guilty in December to first-degree rendering criminal assistance. She was expected to testify that Edmondson killed Rivas in the course of a robbery while they were guests in the 55-year-old victim’s home at 736 1/2 E. 35th Ave.
Contrary to previous Spokesman-Review reports based on information from a friend of the victim’s, Rivas did not come to the United States as a political refugee from his native El Salvador with help from a Spokane church. According to Rosa and Reuben Rivas, he first came to Texas as an immigrant and later moved to Spokane on his own in 1978.
Jose Rivas had planned to become a naturalized citizen in January 2004, his relatives said.